[Answers to med.L. conservātōri-us (bulla, epistola conservatoria), f. L. conservātor: see above and -ORY.]
1. Adapted to conserve; preservative.
1576. Newton, Lemnie’s Complex. (1633), 73. Galen calleth them causes conservatory.
1660. Howell, Parly of Beasts, 143 (D.). Souvrain and conservatory influence.
1824. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1846, I. 37. Compliance … with such conservatory statutes.
1833. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. xviii. 361. The Vessel that was to be conservatory of the wrecks of the species of drowned mankind.
2. = CONSERVATIVE.
1822. Ann. Reg., II. 795. For the advantage of conservatory and truly liberal ideas.
1829. Hist. Europe, ibid., 140/2. A conservatory principle always maintained by France.
3. [= F. conservatoire.] In French law applied to an act of procedure having as its object to prevent prejudice to a right and to a body having this function.
1801. Ann. Reg., 56. A conservatory jury … which was to name, from popular lists, the legislative bodies. Ibid. (1810), Chron., 6. By another decree of the conservatory senate … the towns of Kehl, Wesel, Cassel, and Flushing, are to be united to the French empire.
4. Of or pertaining to the conservators of a river.
1881. Daily News, 13 Sept., 6/5. The conservatory steam launch came upon a number of fishermen … with illegal nets.
