Preserve

Preserve

/prəˈzərv/

verb

1) to keep safe, as from injury or peril, to protect

“Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.”

– Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)

2) to maintain unchanged

“Photographs are physically and chemically complex and require special care to preserve.”

– The National World War II Museum, New Orleans

3) to prepare food or other organic matter so as to prevent it from spoiling or decaying, such as by salting or freezing

“The most common methods of protecting meat, fish, vegetables, and fruits against destruction have been to preserve them in sugar, salt, or vinegar; and the processes of pickling, smoking, drying, pressing, and refrigeration, have been devised for this purpose.”

– Popular Science Monthly, Volume 23, September 1883

noun

4) (often preserves) fruit cooked with sugar to guard against decay

“Every jar of fruit preserves also contains a small miracle: a batch of fruit that ought to have mouldered away months ago.”

– from Jam, Jelly and Marmalade, A Global History by Sarah B. Hood

5) an area set aside for the protection of wildlife or other natural resources

“A nature preserve is designed to “preserve” the natural, native environment.”

– South Shore Audubon Society