Reserve /(r?-z?rv")/

imp. & p. p. Reserved; p. pr. & vb. n. Reserving

1. To keep back; to retain; not to deliver, make over, or disclose.
2. Hence, to keep in store for future or special use; to withhold from present use for another purpose or time; to keep; to retain; to make a reservation{7}.

   Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble?

   Reserve your kind looks and language for private hours.

3. To make an exception of; to except. [R.]

1. The act of reserving, or keeping back; reservation.

   However any one may concur in the general scheme, it is still with certain reserves and deviations.

2. That which is reserved, or kept back, as for future use.

   The virgins, besides the oil in their lamps, carried likewise a reserve in some other vessel for a continual supply.

3. That which is excepted; exception.

   Each has some darling lust, which pleads for a reserve.

4. Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness; caution in personal behavior.

   My soul, surprised, and from her sex disjoined, Left all reserve, and all the sex, behind.

   The clergyman's shy and sensitive reserve had balked this scheme.

5. A tract of land reserved, or set apart, for a particular purpose; as, the Connecticut Reserve in Ohio, originally set apart for the school fund of Connecticut; the Clergy Reserves in Canada, for the support of the clergy.
6. A body of troops in the rear of an army drawn up for battle, reserved to support the other lines as occasion may require; a force or body of troops kept for an exigency. (Mil.)
7. Funds kept on hand to meet liabilities. (Banking)
8. That part of the assets of a bank or other financial institution specially kept in cash in a more or less liquid form as a reasonable provision for meeting all demands which may be made upon it; (Finance)
9. In exhibitions, a distinction which indicates that the recipient will get a prize if another should be disqualified.
10. A resist. (Calico Printing)
11. A preparation used on an object being electroplated to fix the limits of the deposit.