Preserve Meaning
/pɹəˈzɜːv/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.
nounA reservation, a nature preserve.
Sentence Examples
We must preserve our peaceful constitution.
We are to preserve nature.
He was anxious to preserve his reputation.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
To ____ the ancient documents, they were stored in a climate-controlled vault.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The national park was established to ____ the natural habitat of endangered species.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English preserven, from Old French preserver, from Medieval Latin prēservāre (“keep, preserve”), from Late Latin praeservāre (“guard beforehand”), from prae (“before”, adverb) + servāre (“maintain, keep”). Displaced native Old English nerian.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Suppose Shakespeare had been knocked on the head some dark night in Sir Thomas Lucy's preserves, the world would have wagged on better or worse, the pitcher gone to the well, the scythe to the corn, and the student to his book; and no one been any the wiser of the loss."
— 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:
"No one can argue with that—neither the Army Commander nor Zhilinsky nor even the Grand Duke. That is the Emperor’s preserve. The Emperor says France must be saved. We can only do his bidding."
— 1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 86:
"The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies."
— 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
"O, the Lord preserve thy good Grace! By my troth, welcome to London. […]"
— c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
"Better men than you, men who could believe and obey, twisted the entrails of iron and preserved the legend of fire."
— 1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, →OCLC, page 266:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
To ____ the ancient documents, they were stored in a climate-controlled vault.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The national park was established to ____ the natural habitat of endangered species.