Forms: 5–6 sterch(e, 5–7 starche, 7 startch, 6– starch. [In 15th c. sterche, f. sterche STARCH v. to stiffen. Cf. MDu. stercke, MHG. sterke (once, 13th c.), mod.G. stärke starch (from 17th c.), also in the same sense MHG. (13th c.) sterch-chlei (= *sterk-klîe), early mod.G. starkmel ‘amidum’ (Diefenbach).]
1. A substance obtained from flour by removing some of its constituents (now also from other vegetable sources containing ‘starch’ in sense 2), used, in the form of a gummy liquid or paste made with water, to stiffen linen or cotton fabrics in the process of laundry-work, to give a finish to the surface of textile materials, to size paper, and for various other purposes. Also, the gummy liquid or paste made from this substance to prepare it for use.
Starch in its solid form is a white or yellowish white powder (often aggregated in shapeless granules or lumps), odorless, tasteless, and soft to the touch.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 472/2. Starche, for kyrcheys, stibium, gorsa.
14[?]. Lat.-Eng. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 568/48. Brella, sterche.
1530. Tindale, Answ. More’s Dial., Wks. (1573), 324/1. About which was no smale question in Oxforde … whether it were bread or none: some affirming that the floure with long lying in water was turned to starch, and had lost his nature.
1530. Palsgr., 275/2. Starche for lawne, folle flevr.
1549. Act 3 & 4 Edw. VI., c. 2 § 6. Noe person … shall … put any Flockes, chalke, flower or sterche … upon any sett Clothe.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., D viij. A certaine kinde of liquide matter which they call Starch, wherin the deuill hath willed them to wash and diue his ruffes wel.
1591. Greene, Conny Catch. (1592), 16. Rufs of the largest size, quarter and halfe deep, gloried richly with blew starch.
1605. Timme, Quersit., III. 183. Doe you not see how paste, a glutinous matter, and starch also, are made onely with flower and water?
1612. Peacham, Gentl. Exerc., I. xxv. 94. With starch thinne laid on, and the skinne well stretched,… prepare your ground or tablet [for a picture].
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, II. iv. A delicate ballad o’ the Ferret and the Coney…. Another of Goose-greene-starch, and the Deuill.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1655), I. I. ii. 4. Mistris Turner, the first inventress of yellow-Starch.
1683. Pepys, Diary at Tangier, in Life (1841), I. 422. Conge … which is like our water-starch.
1713. Steele, Englishman, No. 17. 113. Queen Elizabeth was a mortal Enemy to the Use of blue Starch in making up Linnen.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, viii. Mr. Dombey stiff with starch and arrogance.
1855. T. F. Hardwich, Man. Photogr. Chem., II. v. 277. The French [photographic papers] are sized with starch.
1882. L. Campbell, Life Clerk Maxwell, v. 105. He had a rooted objection to the vanities of starch and gloves.
1893. Laundry Management, ix. 61. Indian corn or maize is now much used for procuring laundry starches.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 6 Aug., 3/2. For things that need a very slight stiffening there is what is called ecru starch.
1913. E. Thorpe, Dict. Applied Chem., V. 174/1. The starch [from potatoes] dried in this manner [i.e., on shelves made of bars of wood] is known as ‘hurdle starch.’
2. Chem. An organic compound found in plant-cells (a member of the amylose group of carbohydrates) being the chief constituent of ‘starch’ as described under sense 1.
1812–6. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 610. The lime tending to hasten the ripening of the seed, and to convert mucilage into starch.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1163. Three kinds of starch have been distinguished by chemists; that of wheat, that called inuline, and lichen starch.
1849. Balfour, Man. Bot., § 17. Starch exists in the form of granules, which are minute cells … in which nutritious matter is stored up.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 139. Starch is turned blue by iodine, an excellent test for detecting its presence in plants.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 56. Starch always appears in an organised form as solid grains having a concentrically stratified structure, which arise at first as minute dots in the protoplasm, and continue to grow while lying in it.
3. transf. A glutinous mass or substance. † a. (See quot.) Obs.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Nice Valour, III. i. I’m but froath;… or come more nearer sir, Y’ave seen a Cluster of Frog-spawns in April, E’ne such a starche am I.
b. dial. The jelly-fish. More fully starch-fish.
1850. Miss Pratt, Comm. Things of Sea-side, v. 326. At Dover they [jelly-fishes] are very generally called Starch-fishes.
1887. Kent Gloss., Sea starch, jelly-fish. Dover.
1889. Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXV. 71. Wanted, British and foreign sponges…. Also starches (genuine), large spines of echinodermata.
4. fig. Stiffness; esp. of manner or conduct; stiffening.
1705. J. Dunton, Life & Err., 461. His Language is always Neat and Fine, but unaffected, free from Starch, or Intricacy.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 305, ¶ 14. This Professor is to give the Society their Stiffening, and infuse into their Manners that beautiful Political Starch, which may qualifie them for Levees, Conferences, Visits.
1846. Punch, X. 139. The panic has begun to take the starch out of the provisional committee-man.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., I. iv. Her quick mind had taken readily that strong starch of unexplained rules and disconnected facts which saves ignorance from any painful sense of limpness.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as starch box, liquid, -mush (see MUSH sb.1 1), pan, paste, -powder, -works, † -yard; objective and obj. genitive, as starchmaker, starchmaking vbl. sb., starch-producing adj.; instrumental, as starch-sized adj.; similative, as starch-like adj.
1617. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 213. For the *starche boxe vjd.
1899. Cagney, trans. Jaksch’s Clin. Diagn., iv. (ed. 4), 123. *Starch-like formations.
1893. Laundry Management, ix. 66. If a large quantity of *starch liquid is used in a machine.
1586. St. Papers Eliz., Dom., 372. [Richard Young to Walsyngham … sends an account of proceedings against the *starch-makers.]
1663. Canterb. Marriage Licences (MS.), John Loft of All Saints, Canterbury, starch-maker.
1775. Ash, *Starchmaking, the act or process of making starch.
1894. Nation (U. S.), 14 June, LVIII. 451/3. To become proficient in the art of shooting fish, Indians have to live an entire month solely on *starch-mush.
1504. Will of Goodyer (Somerset Ho.). A *starche panne.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 74. The *starch paste … does not, when evaporated, recover its former insolubility.
1886. [see MOUNTANT].
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXII. xxv. II. 140. As touching Amylum or *starch pouder, it dimmeth the eyesight.
1736. Cal. Treas. Books & Papers, 160. Those … who make wigs only and use starch powder, must pray an abatement of duty on starch.
1846. Soyer, Cookery, 483. Have an equal quantity of starch-powder, and powdered sugar.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, xvi. The *starch-producing plants of the West Indies.
1851–3. Tomlinson’s Cycl. Usef. Arts (1867), II. 298/1. The *starch-sized paper is generally thought to be preferable to the other kind.
1885. Manch. Exam., 11 June 4/6. A destructive fire occurred in the *starchworks.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4216/4. The White Lead-House at Rotherhith,… fit for a Deal-yard, *Starch-yard, or Brew-house, to be Let.
b. Special comb.: starch bandage, a bandage rubbed with starch paste, to serve as a splint; also attrib.; starch bath, a medicinal bath or lotion made with starch; starch blue, cellulose (see quots.); starch-corn = SPELT sb.1 1; starch fish, a jelly-fish (see 3 b); † starch-flour, starch in its solid form (see sense 1 note); starch glaze, a preparation for producing a glossy surface on starched goods; starch grain, granule, each of the grains or granules of which starch consists; starch-gum = DEXTRIN; starch hyacinth (see quot.); starch iodide, a compound of iodine and starch; starch jelly = starch mucilage; † starchman, a starch manufacturer; starch mucilage, a paste made of wheat starch, used alone or as a vehicle in pharmacy; starch root (see quot., cf. starchwort); † starch-ruffed a., that wears a starched ruff; starch splint, a splint made with a starch bandage (q.v.); starch sugar = DEXTROSE; starch-water, a solution of starch and water; † starch wench, a young woman employed as a starcher; † starchwoman, a woman who sells starch; starchwort (see quots.).
1846. Lancet, 28 Feb., 240/1. The appareil amidonné, or *starch bandage.
1895. Arnold & Sons’ Catal. Surg. Instrum., 684. Starch Bandage Shears … Starch Bandage Cutter.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 605. In very acute cases [of lichen] … Vidal recommends a litre of vinegar in a *starch bath.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), II. 707/2. Azure is employed to colour starch; hence it has also been called *starch-blue.
1880. Bessey, Bot., § 70. From two to six per cent of the whole [starch] grain … bears some resemblance to cellulose; it is distinguished as *starch-cellulose.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. xliii. 63. Triticum Amyleum. *Starche corne.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1092/2. Starch-corn, Triticum Spelta.
1540. MSS. Duke Rutland (Hist. MSS. Comm.), IV. 301. Payd for *sterche flour, ijd.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XVIII. vii. I. 562. Touching Starch-flower called Amylum, it may be made of all kinds of wheat.
1893. Laundry Management, ix. 64. Some *starch glazes are sold as powders, others as paste.
1849. Balfour, Man. Bot., 8. Cell of Potato, containing striated *starch grains.
1857. Henfrey, Bot., § 683. *Starch-granules … occur either singly or collected in masses of definite shape.
1854. trans. Pereira’s Polarized Light (ed. 2), 278. The substance called dextrine is *starch-gum.
1829. Loudon, Encycl. Plants (1836), 284. Muscari racemosum, *starch [hyacinth].
1878. Abney, Photogr., xxi. 151. A dark blue colour due to *starch iodide.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 520. *Starch jelly is used for similar purposes.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Starch, Such as require very fine Starch, don’t content themselves, like the *Starch-men, with the Refuse of Wheat, but use the finest grain.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 241. A tea-spoonful of oil of turpentine suspended in two ounces of *starch mucilage.
1853. T. B. Groves, in Pharm. Jrnl., XIII. 6. The Arum maculatum is commonly called arrow-root or *starch root [Isle of Portland].
1783. Colman, Capricious Lady, Epil., in Prose on Sev. Occas. (1787), III. 237. The *Starch-Ruff’d Maidens of Queen Bess’s reign.
1867. B. Hill, Essent. Bandaging, iii. 78. In six weeks the *starch splint may usually be discarded.
1844. *Starch sugar [see GLUCOSE].
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1166. The starch thus obtained … may be used … in the moist state … for the preparation of dextrine, and *starch syrup.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 347. This reel is sometimes placed … in a tub containing *starch-water.
1893. Laundry Management, ix. 66. Muslins ought merely to be dipped in very weak starch water.
a. 1626. Breton, Figure of Four, II. (Grosart), 6/2. A needle wench, and a *starch wench.
1604. Middleton, Father Hubburd’s T., E 4. Trulls passing too and fro in the wash-shape of Laundresses, as your Bawdes about London in the manner of *Starch-women.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ccxc. 685. The common Cockow pint is called in Latin Arum:… in English Cockow pint,… and of some *Starchwoort.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1092/2. Starchwort, Arum maculatum.
