starch--prophetes.ai

▪ I. starch, n.
    (stɑːtʃ)
    Forms: 5–6 sterch(e, 5–7 starche, 7 startch, 6– starch.
    [In 15th c. sterche, f. sterche starch v. to stiffen. Cf. MDu. stercke, MHG. sterke (once, 13th c.), mod.G. stärke starch (from 17th c.), also in the same sense MHG. (13th c.) sterch-chlei (= *sterk-klîe), early mod.G. starkmel ‘amidum’ (Diefenbach).]
    1. A substance obtained from flour by removing some of its constituents (now also from other vegetable sources containing ‘starch’ in sense 2), used, in the form of a gummy liquid or paste made with water, to stiffen linen or cotton fabrics in the process of laundry-work, to give a finish to the surface of textile materials, to size paper, and for various other purposes. Also, the gummy liquid or paste made from this substance to prepare it for use.
    Starch in its solid form is a white or yellowish white powder (often aggregated in shapeless granules or lumps), odourless, tasteless, and soft to the touch.

c 1440 Promp. Parv. 472/2 Starche, for kyrcheys, stibium, gersa. 14.. Lat.-Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 568/48 Brella, sterche. 1530 Tindale Answ. More's Dial. Wks. (1573) 324/1 About which was no smale question in Oxforde..whether it were bread or none: some affirming that the floure with long lying in water was turned to starch, and had lost his nature. 1530 Palsgr. 275/2 Starche for lawne, folle flevr. 1549 Act 3 & 4 Edw. VI c. 2 §6 Noe person..shall..put any Flockes, chalke, flower or sterche..upon any sett Clothe. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. D viij, A certaine kinde of liquide matter which they call Starch, wherin the deuill hath willed them to wash and diue his ruffes wel. 1591 Greene Conny Catch. (1592) 16 Rufs of the largest size, quarter and halfe deep, gloried richly with blew starch. 1605 Timme Quersit. iii. 188 Doe you not see how paste, a glutinous matter, and starch also, are made onely with flower and water? 1612 Peacham Gentl. Exerc. i. xxv. 94 With starch thinne laid on, and the skinne well stretched,..prepare your ground or tablet [for a picture]. 1614 B. Jonson Barth. Fair ii. iv, A delicate ballad o' the Ferret and the Coney... Another of Goose-greene-starch, and the Deuill. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1655) I. i. ii. 4 Mistris Turner, the first inventress of yellow-Starch. 1683 Pepys Diary at Tangier in Life (1841) I. 422 Conge..which is like our water-starch. 1713 Steele Englishman No. 17. 113 Queen Elizabeth was a mortal Enemy to the Use of blue Starch in making up Linnen. 1848 Dickens Dombey viii, Mr. Dombey stiff with starch and arrogance. 1855 T. F. Hardwich Man. Photogr. Chem. ii. v. 277 The French [photographic papers] are sized with starch. 1882 L. Campbell Life Clerk Maxwell v. 105 He had a rooted objection to the vanities of starch and gloves. 1893 Laundry Management ix. 61 Indian corn or maize is now much used for procuring laundry starches. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 6 Aug. 3/2 For things that need a very slight stiffening there is what is called ecru starch. 1913 E. Thorpe Dict. Applied Chem. V. 174/1 The starch [from potatoes] dried in this manner [i.e. on shelves made of bars of wood] is known as ‘hurdle starch’.

2. Chem. An organic compound found in plant-cells (a member of the amylose group of carbohydrates) being the chief constituent of ‘starch’ as described under sense 1.

1812–16 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 610 The lime tending to hasten the ripening of the seed, and to convert mucilage into starch. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 1163 Three kinds of starch have been distinguished by chemists; that of wheat, that called inuline, and lichen starch. 1849 Balfour Man. Bot. §17 Starch exists in the form of granules, which are minute cells..in which nutritious matter is stored up. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 139 Starch is turned blue by iodine, an excellent test for detecting its presence in plants. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 56 Starch always appears in an organised form as solid grains having a concentrically stratified structure, which arise at first as minute dots in the protoplasm, and continue to grow while lying in it.

3. transf. A glutinous mass or substance. † a. (See quot.) Obs.

a 1625 Fletcher Nice Valour iii. i, I'm but froath;..or come more nearer sir, Y'ave seen a Cluster of Frog-spawns in April, E'ne such a starche am I.

b. dial. The jelly-fish. More fully starch-fish.

1850 Miss Pratt Comm. Things of Sea-side v. 326 At Dover they [jelly-fishes] are very generally called Starch⁓fishes. 1887 Kent Gloss., Sea starch, jelly-fish. Dover. 1889 Hardwicke's Sci.-Gossip XXV. 71 Wanted, British and foreign sponges... Also starches (genuine), large spines of echinodermata.

4. fig. Stiffness; esp. of manner or conduct; stiffening. Freq. in phr. to take the starch out of (a person or thing): to remove the stiffness, formality, or pompousness from (someone, etc.), esp. by ridicule; to deflate.

1705 J. Dunton Life & Err. 461 His Language is always Neat and Fine, but unaffected, free from Starch, or Intricacy. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 305 ¶14 This Professor is to give the Society their Stiffening, and infuse into their Manners that beautiful Political Starch, which may qualifie them for Levees, Conferences, Visits. 1840 Spirit of Times 25 Apr. 90/1 There is something in training in these parts that will be very apt to ‘take the starch out’ of any ‘conceit’ they may have. 1846 Punch X. 139 The panic has begun to take the starch out of the provisional committee-man. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. i. iv, Her quick mind had taken readily that strong starch of unexplained rules and disconnected facts which saves ignorance from any painful sense of limpness. 1889 G. B. Shaw in Hawk 13 Aug. 172/1 This is the sort of thing that takes the starch out of the most bumptious critic. 1922 Daily Mail 20 Nov. 12 The home forwards were unquestioned masters, and on the day's play would have taken the starch out of any other pack in the country. 1936 V. W. Brooks Flowering of New England vi. 113 The British reviews were cold and formal... The great Romantic critics had not appeared, to take the starch out of their pompous manners.

5. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as starch box, starch liquid, starch-mush (see mush n.¹ 1), starch pan, starch paste, starch-powder, starch-works, † starch-yard; objective and obj. genitive, as starchmaker, starchmaking vbl. n., starch-free, starch-producing adjs.; instrumental, as starch-sized adj.; similative, as starch-like adj.

1617 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 213 For the *starche boxe vj{supd}.

1939 A. Thirkell Before Lunch iv. 88 Miss Starter is on a diet and has to have a special bread called Kornog, which is practically *starch-free. 1971 Guardian 29 June 13/2 Anyone on a starch-free diet should seek some other country [than Scotland].

1899 J. Cagney tr. Jaksch's Clin. Diagn. iv. (ed. 4) 123 *Starch-like formations.

1893 Laundry Management ix. 66 If a large quantity of *starch liquid is used in a machine.

1586 St. Papers Eliz., Dom. 372 [Richard Young to Walsyngham..sends an account of proceedings against the *starch-makers.] 1663 Canterb. Marriage Licences (MS.), John Loft of All Saints, Canterbury, starch⁓maker.

1775 Ash, *Starchmaking, the act or process of making starch.

1894 Nation (U.S.) 14 June LVIII. 451/3 To become proficient in the art of shooting fish, Indians have to live an entire month solely on *starch-mush.

1504 Will of Goodyer (Somerset Ho.), A *starche panne.

1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. 74 The *starch paste..does not, when evaporated, recover its former insolubility. 1886 [see mountant].

1601 Holland Pliny xxii. xxv. II. 140 As touching Amylum or *starch pouder, it dimmeth the eyesight. 1736 Cal. Treas. Books & Papers 160 Those..who make wigs only and use starch powder, must pray an abatement of duty on starch. 1846 A. Soyer Cookery 483 Have an equal quantity of starch-powder, and powdered sugar.

1871 Kingsley At Last xvi, The *starch-producing plants of the West Indies.

1851–3 Tomlinson's Cycl. Usef. Arts (1867) II. 298/1 The *starch-sized paper is generally thought to be preferable to the other kind.

1885 Manch. Exam. 11 June 4/6 A destructive fire occurred..in the *starchworks.

1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4216/4 The White Lead-House at Rotherhith,..fit for a Deal-yard, *Starch-yard, or Brew⁓house, to be Let.

b. Special comb.: starch bandage, a bandage rubbed with starch paste, to serve as a splint; also attrib.; starch bath, a medicinal bath or lotion made with starch; starch blocker, a dietary preparation that supposedly affects the metabolism of starch so that it does not contribute to a gain in weight; starch blue, cellulose (see quots.); starch-corn = spelt n.¹ 1; starch fish, a jelly-fish (see 3 b); † starch-flour, starch in its solid form (see sense 1 note); starch gel, a gel made from starch and an aqueous buffer solution, used as the supporting medium in a method of zone electrophoresis; so starch-gel electrophoresis; starch glaze, a preparation for producing a glossy surface on starched goods; starch grain, granule, each of the grains or granules of which starch consists; starch-gum = dextrin; starch hyacinth, a small bulbous plant, Muscari neglectum, belonging to the family Liliaceæ, native to Europe and western Asia, and bearing spikes of dark blue, strongly scented flowers; starch iodide, a compound of iodine and starch; starch jelly = starch mucilage; † starchman, a starch manufacturer; starch mucilage, a paste made of wheat starch, used alone or as a vehicle in pharmacy; starch-reduced a., processed so as to contain less than the normal proportion of starch; starch root (see quot., cf. starchwort); † starch-ruffed a., that wears a starched ruff; starch splint, a splint made with a starch bandage (q.v.); starch sugar = dextrose; starch-water, a solution of starch and water; † starch wench, a young woman employed as a starcher; † starchwoman, a woman who sells starch; starchwort (see quots.).

1846 Lancet 28 Feb. 240/1 The appareil amidonné, or *starch bandage. 1895 Arnold & Sons' Catal. Surg. Instrum. 684 Starch Bandage Shears..Starch Bandage Cutter.

1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 605 In very acute cases [of lichen]..Vidal recommends a litre of vinegar in a *starch bath.

1981 Arizona Med. XXXVIII. 848/1 A new product has appeared on the market... It is not a drug, but a processed food made from a certain type of bean. It is also called NBE (Northern Bean Extract) or The *Starch Blocker. 1983 Daily Tel. 14 Apr. 6/5 Slimmers who use starch blockers..are wasting their money... Experts..say they do not affect the quantity of starch digested and could have unpleasant effects if they did work.

1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) II. 707/2 Azure is employed to colour starch; hence it has also been called *starch-blue.

1880 Bessey Bot. §70 From two to six per cent of the whole [starch] grain..bears some resemblance to cellulose; it is distinguished as *starch-cellulose.

1597 Gerarde Herbal i. xliii. 63 Triticum Amyleum. *Starche corne. 1866 Treas. Bot. 1092/2 Starch-corn, Triticum Spelta.

1540 MSS. Duke Rutland (Hist. MSS. Comm.) IV. 301 Payd for *sterche flour, ijd. 1601 Holland Pliny xviii. vii. I. 562 Touching Starch-flower called Amylum, it may be made of all kinds of wheat.

1955 O. Smithies in Biochem. Jrnl. LXI. 630/1 A *starch gel containing the desired buffer is prepared in a suitable plastic tray. Ibid. 635/1 α₁-Globulin does not appear as a definite band between α₂-globulin and albumin in starch gel electrophoresis. 1961 Lancet 5 Aug. 291/1 On electrophoresis in starch gel, no macroglobulin moved out from the point of insertion. 1978 Jrnl. R. Soc. Med. LXXI. 192 Investigations into this isoenzyme composition of the circulating CK using starch-gel electrophoresis.

1893 Laundry Management ix. 64 Some *starch glazes are sold as powders, others as paste.

1849 Balfour Man. Bot. 8 Cell of Potato, containing striated *starch grains.

1857 Henfrey Bot. § 683 *Starch-granules..occur either singly or collected in masses of definite shape.

1854 tr. Pereira's Polarized Light (ed. 2) 278 The substance called dextrine is *starch-gum.

1790 Curtis's Bot. Mag. IV. 122 We have thought it better to call this species the *Starch Hyacinth, the smell of the flower in the general opinion resembling that substance. 1808 J. E. Smith Eng. Bot. XXVII. 1931 Starch Hyacinth..is so abundantly wild in many places. 1900 G. Bell Let. 11 Jan. (1927) I. v. 61, I went there yesterday afternoon for starch hyacinths and cyclamen and had a tremendous scramble. 1927 F. B. Young Portrait of Claire IV. iii. 372 In sheltered crevices gentian, starch-hyacinth and chionodoxa mocked with their living blue the surly Midland winter.

1878 Abney Photogr. xxi. 151 A dark blue colour due to *starch iodide.

1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 520 *Starch jelly is used for similar purposes.

1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Starch, Such as require very fine Starch, don't content themselves, like the *Starch-men, with the Refuse of Wheat, but use the finest grain.

1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 241 A tea-spoonful of oil of turpentine suspended in two ounces of *starch mucilage.

1939 A. Thirkwell Before Lunch iv. 89 Pepso is only *starch-reduced. 1972 ‘G. North’ Sgt. Cluff rings True ix. 76 Sugar substitutes, starch-reduced biscuits and breads, low-calorie soups.

1853 T. B. Groves in Pharm. Jrnl. XIII. 60 The Arum maculatum is commonly called arrow-root or *starch root [Isle of Portland].

1783 Colman Capricious Lady Epil., in Prose on Sev. Occas. (1787) III. 237 The *Starch-Ruff'd Maidens of Queen Bess's reign.

1869 B. Hill Essent. Bandaging iii. 85 In six weeks the *starch splint may usually be discarded. 1844 *Starch sugar [see glucose 1].

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 1166 The starch thus obtained..may be used..in the moist state..for the preparation of dextrine, and *starch syrup.

1825 J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 347 This reel is sometimes placed..in a tub containing *starch-water. 1893 Laundry Management ix. 66 Muslins ought merely to be dipped in very weak starch water.

a 1626 Breton Figure of Four ii. (Grosart) 6/2 A needle wench, and a *starch wench.

1604 Middleton Father Hubburd's T. E 4, Trulls passing too and fro in the wash-shape of Laundresses, as your Bawdes about London in the manner of *Starch⁓women.

1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. ccxc. 685 The common Cockow pint is called in Latin Arum:..in English Cockow pint,..and of some *Starchwoort. 1866 Treas. Bot. 1092/2 Starchwort, Arum maculatum.

▪ II. starch, a. Somewhat arch.
    (stɑːtʃ)
    [f. starch n.
    A supposed 13th c. instance of this word, in the form sterch (Long Life in OE. Misc. 156) quoted in some Dicts., is illusory; the scribe makes mistakes like drinche for drinke, and the other texts read starc, sterk.]
    Of a person, his bearing, etc.: Stiff, unbending; formal.

1717 J. Killingbeck 18 Serm. xi. 230 'Tis but misrepresenting Sobriety as a Starch and Formal, and Vertue as a Laborious and Slavish thing. a 1720 Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.) Wks. (1753) I. 146 Then Ph{ddd}ps came forth, as starch as a quaker, Whose simple profession's a pastoral-maker. 1721 Ramsay Tartana 249 Lest, O fair nymphs, you should our patience tire, And starch reserve extinguish generous fire. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 1 Holbein and the Flemish masters, who..saw nothing but the starch and unpliant habits of the times. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas vi. i. ¶12 A man who puts on all the starch formalities of an inveterate religionist. 1822 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Some old Actors, [Bensley as Malvolio] was starch, spruce, opinionated, but his superstructure of pride seemed bottomed upon a sense of worth. 1837 Disraeli Venetia i. xi, His housekeeper,..as precise and starch as an old picture. 1904 H. Paul Hist. Mod. Eng. II. x. 261 That stiff and starch publicist Vattel.

▪ III. starch, v.
    (stɑːtʃ)
    Forms: 5 sterch(e, starche, (7 startche, stars), 7– starch.
    [ME. sterche:—OE. *stęrcan to make rigid (the pa. pple. is found in stęrcedferhþ adj., fixed or resolute of mind), f. stearc stiff, rigid: see stark a. The mod.G. stärken to starch is known no earlier than the 17th c.; Sw. has stärka to starch (app. already in 14th c.), and the derivative stärkelse starch (= WFlem. sterksel, a kind of starch used by weavers).
    The formally equivalent OHG. sterchen (MHG. sterken, mod.G. stärken), OS. sterkian (MLG. sterken), (M)Du. sterken, (M)Sw. (? from LG.) stärka, have the sense ‘to strengthen’.]
    † 1. trans. To stiffen, make rigid; to compose (one's countenance) to a severe or formal expression. Obs.

1402 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 50 Who tytheth bot ȝe the anet and the mente, sterching ȝour faces [cf. Matt. vi. 16, exterminant (v.r. demoliuntur) facies suas], to be holden holi. ? c 1600 Distr. Emperor iii. i. in Bullen Old Pl. (1884) III. 209 Dothe not fawne, Nor croutche, nor crynge, nor startche his countenance.

2. To stiffen (linen, etc.) with starch.

14.. Lat.-Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 613/31 Stibio, to starche. c 1450 in Aungier Syon (1840) 367 Whan the sexteyn..hathe wasche the corporas ones, sche..schal wasche them, sterche them, drye them. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iv. i, And aske you, where you bought your lawne? And..who starches you? c 1625 in Songs & Poems Costume (Percy Soc.) 111 About his neck a flaunting ruff,..Starched with white and blew. 1698 [see conjee]. 1718 Free-thinker No. 28. 197 A Milliner in the Neighbourhood..Starches his Ruffs. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. iv, White bands, clean and freshly starched, and a very full wig.

absol. 1614 Stow Ann. 869/1 [They] made them cambrick Ruffes, and sent them to Mist. Dinghen, to starch... And then they began to send their Daughters..to learne how to starch. 1624 J. Taylor (Water P.) Praise Cl. Linen Wks. (1630) ii. 169/1 She wrings, she folds, she pleits, she smoothes, she starches.

† b. with object the beard or moustache. Obs.

1589 Nashe Pref. Greene's Menaphon (Arb.) 10 Sufficeth them.., hauing starched their beardes most curiouslie, to make a peripateticall path into the inner parts of the Citie. 1642 Howell For. Trav. v. 68 If the one hath a Fancy to stars his mustachos. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 171 It [your beard] does your visage more adorn, Than if 'twere prun'd, and starcht, and lander'd, And cut square by the Russian Standard. 1731 Mrs. Eliz. Thomas Life Corinna p. xxi, His Valet being some Hours every Morning, in Starching his Beard, and Curling his Whiskers.

† c. fig. To make rigid, formal, or precise; to frame (a discourse) in formal or pretentious terms. Also with up. Obs.

1615 A. Niccholes Disc. Marriage & Wiving vii. 21 But as to please woman hath much starched vp man from his slouenry, so to delight man..hath the woman thus increased in prides. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 64 How to be wisht were such an obedient unanimity as this, what a fine conformity would it starch us all into? 1677 Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 161 A quaint discourse starched up in the dress of common rhetoric. 1680 C. Nesse Ch. Hist. 141 Hushai..did defeat his counsel..by starching an oration every way accommodated to Absaloms ambitious humour. 1763 Brit. Mag. IV. 495 Tho' with prudish airs she starch her, Still she longs. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 12 Sept., She starched up her behaviour with a double portion of reserve. 1814 Jane Austen Mansf. Park I. ix. 180 Starched up into seeming piety, but with heads full of something very different.

absol. 1698 M. Henry Life P. Henry viii. (1699) 117 He us'd to say, he could not Starch in his Preaching;..knowing where the Language..is stiff, and forced, and fine (as they call it) it doth not reach the greatest part of the Hearers.

3. † a. To fasten or stick with starch paste; also with on, up. Obs.

1602 Dekker Satiro-m. E 3, I haue a set of letters readie starcht to my hands. 1673 Hickeringill Gregory 28 Some of the Common Herd of mankind..would quietly..pass by this Title-Page, (when starch'd up with the Play-house Bills). 1676 T. Miller Modellist 4 In starching three or four sheets of paper together. 1717 S. Sewall Diary 8 Jan. (1882) III. 116 A virulent Libel was starch'd on upon the Three Doors of the Meeting House. a 1721 Prior Sat. Poets 66 And find'st thy Picture starch'd 'gainst Suburb Wall.

b. To apply a starch paste mountant to (a photographic print).

1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 53 The print should be mounted dry, by starching the back and allowing it to dry and moistening the mount.

Add: 4. In Boxing, to defeat by knockout; to floor. slang (N. Amer.).

1975 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 5 Apr. 47/1 Foreman, it says here, wouldn't even need the skilled collusion of such hamdonnies to starch the five of them in succession. 1984 Toronto Star 28 Mar. b1/6 Prior to that he had starched Ray Seales at Boston on Feb. 2, 1979. 1990 Los Angeles Times 4 Feb. c9/1 A promotional video cassette sent out to the boxing media showing scenes of Pazienza starching inferior opponents.