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starched. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
starched, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
starched in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
starched you have here. The definition of the word
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starched, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Verb
starched
- simple past and past participle of starch
Adjective
starched (comparative more starched, superlative most starched)
- Of a garment: having had starch applied.
1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, pages 703-704:I recall the height of comfort attained by the green-cushioned "first" with starched white antimacassars and a pretentious grey floor mat on which it seemed a sacrilege to stand, as it was embellished with the North Western conception of Britannia, complete with trident.
- Stiff, formal, rigid; prim and proper.
1712, Jonathan Swift, “An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity”, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, volume 1, Dublin: George Faulkner, published 1751, pages 102-103:Does the Gospel any where prescribe a starched squeezed Countenance, a stiff formal Gait, a Singularity of Manners and Habit, or any affected Modes of Speech, different from the reasonable Part of Mankind?
1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Animadversions on Some of the Writers who have Rendered Women Objects of Pity, Bordering on Contempt”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: J Johnson, , published 1792, →OCLC, page 217:A cultivated understanding, and an affectionate heart, will never want starched rules of decorum—something more substantial than seemliness will be the result; and, without understanding the behaviour here recommended, would be rank affectation.
1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter XII, in Rob Roy. , volume II, Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. ; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 245:I was not a little startled at recognising in his companions that very Morris on whose account I had been summoned before Justice Inglewood, and Mr MacVittie the merchant, at whose starched and severe aspect I had recoiled on the preceding day.
1961, Bernard Malamud, A New Life, Penguin, published 1968, page 107:‘ […] CD is a fair-enough scholar but starched like my grand-daddy’s collar.’
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