starch Meaning, Definition & Usage

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 textiles
amylum.
noun a commercial preparation of starch that is used to stiffen textile fabrics in laundering
verb stiffen with starch
- starch clothes

AS. stearc stark, strong, rough. See Stark.

From starch stiff, cf. G. stärke, fr. stark strong.

(Chem.) A widely diffused vegetable substance found especially in seeds, bulbs, and tubers, and extracted (as from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) as a white, glistening, granular or powdery substance, without taste or smell, and giving a very peculiar creaking sound when rubbed between the fingers. It is used as a food, in the production of commercial grape sugar, for stiffening linen in laundries, in making paste, etc. ✍ Starch is a carbohydrate, being the typical amylose, C6H10O5, and is detected by the fine blue color given to it by free iodine. It is not fermentable as such, but is changed by diastase into dextrin and maltose, and by heating with dilute acids into dextrose. Cf. Sugar, Inulin, and Lichenin.
Fig.: A stiff, formal manner; formality. Addison.

imperfect & past participle Starched ; present participle & verbal noun Starching