Somewhat arch. [f. STARCH sb.
A supposed 13th-c. instance of this word, in the form sterch (Long Life, in O. E. Misc., 156) quoted in some Dicts., is illusory; the scribe makes mistakes like drinche for drinke, and the other texts read starc, sterk.]
Of a person, his bearing, etc.: Stiff, unbending; formal.
1717. J. Killingbeck, 18 Serm., xi. 230. ’Tis but misrepresenting Sobriety as a Starch and Formal, and Vertue as a Laborious and Slavish thing.
a. 1720. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), I. 146. Then Ph…ps came forth, as starch as a quaker, Whose simple profession’s a pastoral-maker.
1721. Ramsay, Tartana, 249. Lest, O fair nymphs, you should our patience tire, And starch reserve extinguish generous fire.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 1. Holbein and the Flemish masters, who … saw nothing but the starch and unpliant habits of the times.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VI. i. ¶ 12. A man who puts on all the starch formalities of an inveterate religionist.
1822. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Some old Actors. [Bensley as Malvolio] was starch, spruce, opinionated, but his superstructure of pride seemed bottomed upon a sense of worth.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, I. xi. His housekeeper,… as precise and starch as an old picture.
1904. H. Paul, Hist. Mod. Eng., II. x. 261. That stiff and starch publicist Vattel.
