All 7 Uses of

preserve
in
Persuasion, by Jane Austen

A lady, without a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world.†
Chpt 3 *

preserver = someone or something that protects something or keeps it as it is

Family connexions were always worth preserving, good company always worth seeking; Lady Dalrymple had taken a house, for three months, in Laura Place, and would be living in style.†
Chpt 16

She had seen too much of the world, to expect sudden or disinterested attachment anywhere, but her illness had proved to her that her landlady had a character to preserve, and would not use her ill; and she had been particularly fortunate in her nurse, as a sister of her landlady, a nurse by profession, and who had always a home in that house when unemployed, chanced to be at liberty just in time to attend her.†
Chpt 17

It was almost too wonderful for belief, and it was with the greatest effort that she could remain in the room, preserve an air of calmness, and answer the common questions of the moment.†
Chpt 18

Even the smooth surface of family-union seems worth preserving, though there may be nothing durable beneath.†
Chpt 21

Here it is; I would not burn it, because being even then very little satisfied with Mr Elliot, I was determined to preserve every document of former intimacy.†
Chpt 21

In the centre of some of the best preserves in the kingdom, surrounded by three great proprietors, each more careful and jealous than the other; and to two of the three at least, Charles Hayter might get a special recommendation.†
Chpt 22 *

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