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Webster 1913 Edition

Starch

Starch

(stärch)
,
Adj.
[AS.
stearc
stark, strong, rough. See
Stark
.]
Stiff; precise; rigid.
[R.]
Killingbeck.

Starch

,
Noun.
[From
starch
stiff, cf. G.
stärke
, fr.
stark
strong.]
1.
(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
.
2.
Fig.: A stiff, formal manner; formality.
Addison.
Starch hyacinth
(Bot.)
,
the grape hyacinth; – so called because the flowers have the smell of boiled starch. See under
Grape
.

Starch

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Starched
(stärcht)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Starching
.]
To stiffen with starch.

Webster 1828 Edition

Starch

STARCH

,
Noun.
[G., strength, starch; strong. See Stare and Steer.] A substance used to stiffen linen and other cloth. It is the fecula of flour , or a substance that subsides from water mixed with wheat flour. It is sometimes made from potatoes. Starch forms the greatest portion of farinaceous substances, particularly of wheat flour, and it si the chief aliment of bread.

STARCH

,
Adj.
Stiff; precise; rigid.

STARCH

,
Verb.
T.
To stiffen with starch.

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