Inflected forms: re·served, re·serv·ing, re·serves 1. To keep back, as for future use or for a special purpose. 2. To set or cause to be set apart for a particular person or use. See synonyms at book. 3. To keep or secure for oneself; retain: I reserve the right to disagree. See synonyms at keep.
NOUN:
1. Something kept back or saved for future use or a special purpose. 2. The act of reserving. 3. The keeping of one's feelings, thoughts, or affairs to oneself. 4. Self-restraint in expression; reticence: “One feels it everywhere, a quality of reserve, something held back” (Rollene W. Saal). 5. Lack of enthusiasm; skeptical caution. 6. An amount of capital held back from investment in order to meet probable or possible demands. 7. A reservation of public land: a forest reserve.8. An amount of a mineral, fossil fuel, or other resource known to exist in a particular location and to be exploitable: the discovery of large oil reserves.9a. A fighting force kept uncommitted until strategic need arises. Often used in the plural. b. The part of a country's armed forces not on active duty but subject to call in an emergency.
ADJECTIVE:
Held in or forming a reserve: a reserve supply of food.
IDIOM:
in reserve Kept back, set aside, or saved.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English reserven, from Old French reserver, from Latin reservre, to keep back : re-, re- + servre, to keep; see ser-1 in Appendix I.
r
-zûrv
re, to keep back : re-, re- + serv
