Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Reserve   /rɪzˈərv/  /rizˈərv/   Listen
noun
Reserve  n.  
1.
The act of reserving, or keeping back; reservation. "However any one may concur in the general scheme, it is still with certain reserves and deviations."
2.
That which is reserved, or kept back, as for future use. "The virgins, besides the oil in their lamps, carried likewise a reserve in some other vessel for a continual supply."
3.
That which is excepted; exception. "Each has some darling lust, which pleads for a reserve."
4.
Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness; caution in personal behavior. "My soul, surprised, and from her sex disjoined, Left all reserve, and all the sex, behind." "The clergyman's shy and sensitive reserve had balked this scheme."
5.
A tract of land reserved, or set apart, for a particular purpose; as, the Connecticut Reserve in Ohio, originally set apart for the school fund of Connecticut; the Clergy Reserves in Canada, for the support of the clergy.
6.
(Mil.)
(a)
A body of troops in the rear of an army drawn up for battle, reserved to support the other lines as occasion may require; a force or body of troops kept for an exigency.
(b)
Troops trained but released from active service, retained as a formal part of the military force, and liable to be recalled to active service in cases of national need (see Army organization, above).
7.
(Banking) Funds kept on hand to meet liabilities.
8.
(Finance)
(a)
That part of the assets of a bank or other financial institution specially kept in cash in a more or less liquid form as a reasonable provision for meeting all demands which may be made upon it; specif.:
(b)
(Banking) Usually, the uninvested cash kept on hand for this purpose, called the real reserve. In Great Britain the ultimate real reserve is the gold kept on hand in the Bank of England, largely represented by the notes in hand in its own banking department; and any balance which a bank has with the Bank of England is a part of its reserve. In the United States the reserve of a national bank consists of the amount of lawful money it holds on hand against deposits, which is required by law (in 1913) to be not less than 15 per cent (), three fifths of which the banks not in a reserve city (which see) may keep deposited as balances in national banks that are in reserve cities ().
(c)
(Life Insurance) The amount of funds or assets necessary for a company to have at any given time to enable it, with interest and premiums paid as they shall accure, to meet all claims on the insurance then in force as they would mature according to the particular mortality table accepted. The reserve is always reckoned as a liability, and is calculated on net premiums. It is theoretically the difference between the present value of the total insurance and the present value of the future premiums on the insurance. The reserve, being an amount for which another company could, theoretically, afford to take over the insurance, is sometimes called the reinsurance fund or the self-insurance fund. For the first year upon any policy the net premium is called the initial reserve, and the balance left at the end of the year including interest is the terminal reserve. For subsequent years the initial reserve is the net premium, if any, plus the terminal reserve of the previous year. The portion of the reserve to be absorbed from the initial reserve in any year in payment of losses is sometimes called the insurance reserve, and the terminal reserve is then called the investment reserve.
9.
In exhibitions, a distinction which indicates that the recipient will get a prize if another should be disqualified.
10.
(Calico Printing) A resist.
11.
A preparation used on an object being electroplated to fix the limits of the deposit.



verb
Reserve  v. t.  (past & past part. reserved; pres. part. reserving)  
1.
To keep back; to retain; not to deliver, make over, or disclose. "I have reserved to myself nothing."
2.
Hence, to keep in store for future or special use; to withhold from present use for another purpose or time; to keep; to retain; to make a reservation (7). Note: In cases where one person or party makes a request to an agent that some accommodation (such as a hotel room or place at a restaurant) be kept (reserved) for their use at a particular time, the word reserve applies both to the action of the person making the request, and to the action of the agent who takes the approproriate action (such as a notation in a book of reservations) to be certain that the accommodation is available at that time. "Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble?" "Reserve your kind looks and language for private hours."
3.
To make an exception of; to except. (R.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Reserve" Quotes from Famous Books



... face of the dawn, in your large and luminous eye, Then would have come back all the joys the tidings had slain that day, And a new beginning, a fresh fair heaven, have smoothed the things awry. But you were less feebly human, and no passionate need for clinging Possessed your soul to overthrow reserve when I came near; Ay, though you suffer as much as I from storms the hours are bringing Upon your heart and mine, I never ...
— Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries, with - Miscellaneous Pieces • Thomas Hardy

... of you will consider these words of remonstrance to be rather words of hostility; men remonstrate with friends who are in error, accusations they reserve for enemies who have wronged them. Besides, we consider that we have as good a right as any one to point out a neighbour's faults, particularly when we contemplate the great contrast between the two national characters; a contrast of which, as far as we can see, you have little ...
— The History of the Peloponnesian War • Thucydides

... this moment in hiding, and jumped to meet it. The club came down between the two heads; and there was no reserve this time in the muscles that swung it. It caught the brute fair on the head, where the nose begins to come up into the skull,—and he too had ...
— Secret of the Woods • William J. Long

... in Jersey and elsewhere, from the running of hot-water pipes through the soil. The crops are trebled and quadrupled. I would propose to try the experiment upon a larger scale. We might possibly reserve the Isle of Man to serve as a pumping and heating station. The main pipes would run to England, Ireland, and Scotland, where they would subdivide rapidly until they formed a network two feet deep ...
— The Doings Of Raffles Haw • Arthur Conan Doyle

... vitality, will endure its consequences with an apparent negation, so far as positive or specific results are concerned, but it is only an apparent impunity. There is always a certain amount of strength built up, held in reserve as a heritage of youth, which will withstand a certain amount of physical license, but if this reserve is assailed by an unnecessary imposition, and is successfully undermined, there will be infinitely less reserve to ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Vol 2 (of 4) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • W. Grant Hague


More quotes...



Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com