Definition of: preserve

(pri·zûrv′) v. ·served, ·serv·ing v.t.
1. To keep in safety; protect from destruction, loss, death, or detriment; guard: May the gods preserve you.
2. To keep intact or unimpaired; maintain: to preserve appearances.
3. To prepare (food) for future consumption, as by boiling with sugar or salting.
4. To keep from decomposition or change, as by chemical treatment: to preserve a specimen in alcohol.
5. To keep for one's private hunting or fishing: to preserve foxes; to preserve a wood.
—v.i.
6. To make preserves, as of fruit.
7. To maintain a game preserve.
—noun
1. Usually plural Fruit which has been cooked, usually with sugar, to prevent its fermenting.
2. Something preserved or which preserves.
3. A place set apart for one's own private use, or in which game or fish are protected for purposes of sport. [<OF preserver <LL praeservare <L prae- before + servare keep]
—pre·serv′a·bil′i·ty noun
—pre·serv′a·ble adjective
—pres·er·va·tion (prez′ər·vā′shən) noun
—pre·serv′er noun Synonyms (verb): conserve, defend, guard, keep, maintain, protect, save, secure, sustain, uphold. See KEEP, RETAIN. Antonyms: abandon, lavish, lose, neglect, scatter, spend, spoil, waste.