Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular presenttense, plural starches, present participle starching, past tense, past participle starched
1. variable noun
Starch is a substance that is found in foods such as bread, potatoes, pasta, and rice and gives you energy.
She ate more fruit and vegetables and less starch, salt, and fat.
2. uncountable noun
Starch is a substance that is used for making cloth stiffer, especially cotton and linen.
3. verb
If you starch cloth, you make it stiffer using starch.
I took down the curtains, washed, and starched them. [VERB noun]
starch in British English
(stɑːtʃ)
noun
1.
a polysaccharide composed of glucose units that occurs widely in plant tissues in the form of storage granules, consisting of amylose and amylopectin
▶ Related adjective: amylaceous
2. Also called: amylum
a starch obtained from potatoes and some grain: it is fine white powder that forms a translucent viscous solution on boiling with water and is used to stiffen fabric and in many industrial processes
3.
any food containing a large amount of starch, such as rice and potatoes
4.
stiff or pompous formality of manner or conduct
verb
5. (transitive)
to stiffen with or soak in starch
adjective
6.
(of a person) formal; stiff
Derived forms
starcher (ˈstarcher)
noun
starchlike (ˈstarchˌlike)
adjective
Word origin
Old English stercan (unattested except by the past participle sterced) to stiffen; related to Old Saxon sterkian, Old High German sterken to strengthen, Dutch sterken; see stark
starch in American English
(stɑrtʃ)
noun
1.
a white, tasteless, odorless food substance found in potatoes, rice, corn, wheat, cassava, and many other vegetable foods: it is a granular solid, chemically a complex carbohydrate, (C6H10O5)n, and is used in adhesives, sizes, foods, cosmetics, medicine, etc.
2.
a powdered form of this, used in laundering for stiffening cloth, fabrics, etc.
3. [pl.]
starchy foods
4.
formal, unbending manner or behavior; stiffness
5. US, Informal
energy; vigor
verb transitive
6.
to stiffen with or as if with starch
Derived forms
starchless (ˈstarchless)
adjective
Word origin
ME starche < sterchen, to stiffen < OE *stercan < stearc, rigid, stiff, akin to Ger stark, strong: see stark
starch in the Pharmaceutical Industry
(stɑrtʃ)
Word forms: (plural) starches
noun (count) (noncount)
(Pharmaceutical: Excipients)
Starch is a polysaccharide used as a dusting powder, and as a disintegrant, filler, and binder in pharmaceutical preparations.
The polysaccharide starch acts as a disintegrating agent or binder, depending on how it is applied.
In the pharmaceutical industry starch is used as a filler in tablets.
Starch is a polysaccharide used as a dusting powder, and as a disintegrant, filler, andbinder in pharmaceutical preparations.
corn starch
Examples of 'starch' in a sentence
starch
The second reason is to rinse some of the starch from the grains.
The Sun (2016)
You will make the rice release starch and it will become too stodgy.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Cream dressings may be used with starch or protein meals.
MacEoin, Beth Healthy By Nature (1994)
And there is a load of sugar in the starch.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
It is not about how much sugar and starch you eat and drink so much as how often.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
It added that its American corn sweeteners and industrial starch had also done well.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
Out go starched linens, in comes homespun crockery.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
They included shirts, shoes and starched winged collars.
The Sun (2015)
Are the starch grains tightly packed, or open and fluffy?
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Baking powder and starch also have to be avoided, and wheat flour is often added to ground white pepper.
Orton, Christine Eczema Relief - the comprehensive self-help plan (1990)
But his former high school teachers recall that he did it with such panache that few doubted the inner cool that lurked behind his starched shirt.
The Sun (2013)
I was 18 and learnt to polish silver and starch collars.
The Sun (2015)
The GI values of potatoes vary according to the structure of their starch grains.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Here we had the choice of 100 tables covered in starched white cloths - brazenly bare.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Anyway, dark grey and white walls, starched white linen.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
But high cooking temperatures will destroy most of the healthy chemicals, leaving mainly starch, fat and minerals.
The Sun (2011)
It contains rice starch, which absorbs oil without clogging your pores, is controlled that adding instant volume and definition.
The Sun (2013)
To make the pastry cream, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until light and thick, then whisk in the corn starch.
The Sun (2012)
After days of stories of poverty - and seeing a fair amount of it - the starched white tablecloths and formal service were surreal.
The Sun (2008)
I hadn't seen anything like it before, being used to starched tablecloths and folded napkins.
Peter McEvoy For Love or Money (2006)
She also reorganised her eating so that she was taking more fruit and vegetables and less starch, salt, and fat for that week.
Knowles, Jane Know Your Own Mind (1991)
A good conscience means cooking protein, starch, and three sorts of vegetables that you can throw in the bin afterwards.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
In other languages
starch
British English: starch /stɑːtʃ/ NOUN
Starch is a carbohydrate found in foods such as bread, potatoes, and rice.