preserve

«preserve» in Mova's school dictionary: To keep something safe from harm, damage or change:… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (preserve, preserves, preserved, preserving); noun (a preserve, preserves)

meaning for a pupil

1) To keep something safe from harm, damage or change: preserve old buildings, preserve wildlife. tree →

2) To treat food so it lasts a long time, by drying, salting, freezing, pickling or making jam. tree →

3) (noun) Jam or fruit cooked with sugar to keep: strawberry preserves. tree →

4) (noun) An area kept for wild animals, or something that belongs to only one group: «a game preserve». tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons fossils are preserved in rock, ice or amber; salt and cold preserve food by stopping germs. In geography and everyday life we preserve forests, rivers and old buildings. In maths, some changes preserve a shape's size (a turn or slide), and «preserve the order» means keep it the same. Phrases: «preserve wildlife», «well preserved», «preserved in ice», «strawberry preserves».

examples

• Salt helps preserve fish. tree →
• The insect was preserved in amber for millions of years. tree →
• We must preserve the rainforest for future people. tree →
• Grandma makes plum preserves every autumn. tree →
• The mammoth was preserved in the ice. tree →
• A turn preserves the size and shape of a triangle. tree →
• The old castle is well preserved. tree →
• Freezing preserves food for months. tree →
• I should have liked to preserve a specimen. tree →

note

Regular verb: preserved. Noun: preservation; adjective: preservative (a chemical that stops food going bad). Similar: protect, keep, save, conserve. «Preserves» (jam) is often plural.

In the corpora

• "Well-preserved" is a cheeky way to say someone is old but still looks good.
• A fossil is the preserved remains or trace of a living thing from long ago, usually over 10,000 years old.
• A fossil is the remains or trace of a living thing from long ago preserved in rock.
• Thou wilt keep them, O LORD; Thou wilt preserve us from this generation for ever.
• Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, because I wait for Thee.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «preserve» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.