All 5 Uses

preserve
in
The Scarlet Letter
(Edited)

But, as respects the majority of my corps of veterans, there will be no wrong done if I characterize them generally as a set of wearisome old souls, who had gathered nothing worth preservation from their varied experience of life.
p. 17.3 *

preservation = saving
Nothing, if I rightly call to mind, was left of my respected predecessor, save an imperfect skeleton, and some fragments of apparel, and a wig of majestic frizzle, which, unlike the head that it once adorned, was in very satisfactory preservation.
p. 29.9

preservation = non-deteriorated condition
Could I have preserved the picturesque force of his style, and the humourous colouring which nature taught him how to throw over his descriptions, the result, I honestly believe, would have been something new in literature.
p. 36.3

preserved = kept
And may she feel, too—what, methinks, is the very truth—that this boon was meant, above all things else, to keep the mother's soul alive, and to preserve her from blacker depths of sin into which Satan might else have sought to plunge her!
p. 106.4

preserve = protect
So far as concerns the overthrow or preservation of his fair fame and his earthly state, and perchance his life, he is in my hands.
p. 160.1

preservation = protection

Definitions:

(1) (preserve as in: preserve the records)
to protect something or to keep it as it is
(2) (preserve as in: preserve the peaches)
to prepare food in a way that keeps it from spoiling
(3) (preserve as in: a wildlife preserve)
protected wildlife area
(4) (preserve as in: no longer a male preserve)
something exclusive to (someone or some group) -- such as an activity or place
(5) (preserves as in: mom made preserves)
chunks of fruit cooked with sugar (like jam) and sealed (usually in a mason jar) so it will not spoil
(6) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)