dynamic
toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

preserve
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

preserve as in:  preserve the records

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • The police closed off the room to preserve the crime scene.
    preserve = keep a condition from changing
  • She took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.
    preserve = protect or maintain
  • The change was made to preserve the NATO alliance.
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 7 word variations
  • Like I could preserve whatever I touched.  (source)
    preserve = protect; or keep from changing
  • And then the insects are preserved in amber….  (source)
    preserved = kept as they were
  • My first instinct is still self-preservation.  (source)
    preservation = protection
  • This sleeping bag, radiating back and preserving my body heat, will be invaluable.  (source)
    preserving = keeping
  • I am reminded that there are limits to my power, and some circumstances must be borne with as much grace as one can muster, even if it means spending several days in abject misery, clutching a pan like a life preserver.  (source)
    preserver = protector
  • She had caught a cold, and it made her voice huskier and more charming than ever, and Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.  (source)
    preserves = keeps
  • He portrays himself as a preservationist with a social conscience.†  (source)
    preservationist = someone who protects something or keeps it as it is
  • Mom countered that since she was twice as large as me and therefore required more physical fabric to preserve her modesty, she deserved at least two-thirds of the suitcase.  (source)
    preserve = protect
  • Preserved in a diary for fifty years.  (source)
    Preserved = kept as it was
  • The fight for self-preservation had hardened him beyond caring.  (source)
    preservation = protection
▲ show less (of above)

preserve as in:  preserve the peaches

Salt was used to preserve the meat.
preserve = prepare food in a way to keep it from spoiling
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • My grandmother preserves peaches.
    preserves = prepares food in a way to keep it from spoiling
  • She began to clean and cook and preserve some of the food I brought in for winter.  (source)
    preserve = prepare in a way that keeps from spoiling
  • Every summer Miss Katherine would pick bushels of peaches and preserve them in jars with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and other spices which she kept secret.  (source)
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 4 word variations
  • "I didn't know honey was a preservative," I said, starting to like the feel of it under my fingers, how they glided as if oiled.  (source)
    preservative = something that can be added to food to keep it from spoiling
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ative" in preservative means tending to. This is the same pattern you see in words like representative, creative, and comparative.
  • Alaskan hunters know that the easiest way to preserve meat in the bush is to slice it into thin strips and then air-dry it on a makeshift rack.  (source)
    preserve = prepare in a way that keeps from spoiling
  • "I am going to get up a little to-day," she says and turns to my sister, who is continually running to the kitchen to watch that the food does not burn: "And put out that jar of preserved whortleberries—you like that, don't you?" she asks me.  (source)
    preserved = prepared in a way that keeps them from spoiling (and with lots of sugar, kind of like jam)
  • At that point he gave up on preserving the bulk of the meat and abandoned the carcass to the wolves.  (source)
    preserving = preparing food in a way that keeps it from spoiling
  • Entomology smells like mothballs and oil: a preservative that, Dr. Geffard explains, is called naphthalene.  (source)
    preservative = something used to keep something else from spoiling
  • The cans were coated with dust and starting to rust, but we figured the food was still safe to eat, since the whole point of canning was to preserve.  (source)
    preserve = prepare food in a way that keeps it from spoiling
  • Master Micawber was hardly visible in a Guernsey shirt, and the shaggiest suit of slops I ever saw; and the children were done up, like preserved meats, in impervious cases.  (source)
    preserved = prepared food in a way that keeps it from spoiling
  • A white snake in a jar of preservative stared blindly down at them.†  (source)
    preservative = something added to food to keep it from spoiling
  • We ordered a large amount of meat (under the counter, of course) that we were planning to preserve in case there were hard times ahead.  (source)
    preserve = of food: prepare it in a way that keeps it from spoiling
  • Lots of wet life vests, lots of leaky canoes, and the smell of pine needles and wood preservative—a little of that lasts a long time for a fussy old bachelor like me.†  (source)
    preservative = something added to food to keep it from spoiling
▲ show less (of above)

preserve as in:  a wildlife preserve

The land was donated to the state so it could forever remain a wildlife preserve.
preserve = protected wildlife area
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • We visited the wildlife preserve.
  • Up the coast there, you see the Cabo Blanco preserve.  (source)
    preserve = a place where conditions are kept as they were to protect wildlife
  • He tells them he's building a wildlife preserve.  (source)
▲ show less (of above)
Show 9 more with 2 word variations
  • He was the man in that forest preserve who did all the talking, wasn't he?  (source)
    preserve = a place where conditions are kept as they were to protect wildlife
  • Bird sanctuaries are large preserves.  (source)
    preserves = places where conditions are kept as they were to protect wildlife
  • This was her nature preserve, a cramped room with a couple of sofas and chairs, where she sat and yakked with the night staff about coffee prices and unsafe streets and the burn victim with the smell you can't describe—this was the handgrip, the safehold she needed to live.  (source)
    preserve = a place where conditions are maintained to protect wildlife
  • There had been things to conceal within that Oriental wildlife preserve, so it was protected by an all but impassable government barrier.  (source)
    preserve = a place where conditions are kept as they were to protect wildlife
  • Supposedly to set up a biological preserve.  (source)
    preserve = a place where conditions are maintained to protect wildlife
  • If they were conspirators — and everything he had seen and heard from Shenzhen to Tian an men Square to this wildlife preserve would seem to confirm it — the conspiracy reached into the hierarchy of Beijing.  (source)
    preserve = a place where conditions are kept as they were to protect wildlife
  • Making it the largest private animal preserve in North America.  (source)
    preserve = protected wildlife area
  • Going to be a biological preserve.  (source)
    preserve = a place where conditions are maintained to protect wildlife
  • It's a wildlife preserve and gunnery range.  (source)
    preserve = a place where conditions are kept as they were to protect wildlife
▲ show less (of above)

preserve as in:  no longer a male preserve

At that time, Yoga was the preserve of India's highest-caste men.
preserve = an activity done exclusively by a group
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • Once an all-male preserve, the club now is now half female.
    preserve = a place exclusive to a group
  • Owning a private jet is the preserve of the rich.
    preserve = something exclusive to a group
  • The world of classical music—particularly in its European home—was until very recently the preserve of white men.  (source)
    preserve = an activity done exclusively by a group
▲ show less (of above)
Show 6 more
  • At any rate, very few Indians were converted, and the Salem folk believed that the virgin forest was the Devil's last preserve, his home base and the citadel of his final stand.  (source)
    preserve = place of control
  • In puzzling over that challenge, Allan Rosenfield kept thinking back to his experience as a young doctor in Thailand, when he trained midwives to offer services that normally were the preserve only of physicians.  (source)
    preserve = something exclusive to
  • On the second floor was Alpha Group's overflowing Registry— Rousseau preferred old-fashioned paper dossiers to digital files—and the third and fourth floors were the preserve of the agent runners.  (source)
    preserve = a place exclusive to a group
  • He took less care of his appearance and less notice of his surroundings, he lunched in the canteen which was normally the preserve of junior staff, and it was obvious that he was drinking.  (source)
    preserve = something exclusive to a group
  • This is a great tract of a hundred thousand acres, which from time immemorial has been a hunting preserve of the nobility.  (source)
    preserve = a place exclusive to a group
  • Now I am in the garden at the back, beyond the yard where the empty pigeon-house and dog-kennel are — a very preserve of butterflies, as I remember it, with a high fence, and a gate and padlock; where the fruit clusters on the trees, riper and richer than fruit has ever been since, in any other garden, and where my mother gathers some in a basket, while I stand by, bolting furtive gooseberries, and trying to look unmoved.  (source)
▲ show less (of above)

preserves as in:  mom made preserves

My grandmother made preserves.
preserves = chunks of fruit cooked with sugar so they will not spoil
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • Preserves have more fruit than jam.
  • In jam, the fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp or crushed fruit. In preserves, the fruit comes in the form of chunks in a gel or syrup.
  • I load a plate with eggs, sausages, batter cakes covered in thick orange preserves, slices of pale purple melon.  (source)
    preserves = fruit cooked with sugar (like jam)
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 2 word variations
  • …the shelves of preserves — dusty jams and jellies glinting like uncut gems, chutneys and pickles and strawberries and peeled tomatoes and applesauce, all in Crown sealing jars.  (source)
    preserves = chunks of fruit cooked with sugar so they will not spoil
  • Your dinner is in the oven, Anne, and you can get yourself some blue plum preserve out of the pantry.  (source)
    preserve = fruit cooked with sugar (like jam)
  • The doors to the pantry stood open, and Eliza's crocks of preserves, the sugar cone, and her spice cabinet were missing.  (source)
    preserves = fruit cooked with sugar and sealed (usually in a jar) so it will not spoil
  • In vain she nibbled at the bread and butter and pecked at the crab-apple preserve out of the little scalloped glass dish by her plate.  (source)
    preserve = fruit cooked with sugar (like jam)
  • Inside were fifteen pastries, separated by squares of wax paper and stuffed with strawberry preserves.  (source)
  • There's strawberry preserves, if you want them.  (source)
  • He had horse meat salted and pork smoked, and set the women to making fruit preserves.  (source)
    preserves = fruit cooked with sugar and sealed (usually in a jar) so it will not spoil
  • You would put strawberry preserves on the popovers, which forget it, all life from the Renaissance onward it pales by compare.  (source)
    preserves = fruit cooked with sugar (like jam)
  • "Mother Elena has been here as long as I have," our headmistress says, packing a jar of plum preserves neatly into the basket.  (source)
  • I stood on the step-ladder and got all my watermelon-rind preserves and every fruit and vegetable I'd put up, every jar.  (source)
    preserves = chunks of fruit cooked with sugar so they will not spoil
▲ show less (of above)