starch
pronunciation
How to pronounce starch in British English:
UK [stɑːtʃ]
How to pronounce starch in American English:
US [stɑːrtʃ]
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- Noun:
- a complex carbohydrate found chiefly in seeds, fruits, tubers, roots and stem pith of plants, notably in corn, potatoes, wheat, and rice; an important foodstuff and used otherwise especially in adhesives and as fillers and stiffeners for paper and texti
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- Verb:
- stiffen with starch
Word Origin
- starch (v.)
- late 14c., from Old English *stercan (Mercian), *stiercan (West Saxon) "make rigid," found in stercedferhð "fixed, hard, resolute" (related to stearc "stiff"), from Proto-Germanic *starkijan "to make hard" (cognates: German Stärke "strength, starch," Swedish stärka "to starch"), from PIE root *ster- (1) "strong, firm, stiff, rigid" (see stark). Related: Starched; starching.
- starch (n.)
- "pasty substance used to stiffen cloth," mid-15c., back-formation from starch (v.). Figurative sense of "stiffness of manner" is recorded from 1705.
Example
- 1. It breaks starch molecules into more digestible fragments .
- 2. The crust beauty depends on the amount of sugar and starch .
- 3. My husband like his shirts with heavy starch .
- 4. Gluten-free starch is used in special food preparations for celiac disease patients .
- 5. His attempts to make plastic from potato starch were foiled by hungry snails .