Forms: 5 sterch(e, starche, (7 startche, stars), 7– starch. [ME. sterche:—OE. *stęrcan to make rigid (the pa. pple. is found in stęrcedferhþ adj., fixed or resolute of mind), f. stearc stiff, rigid: see STARK a. The mod.G. stärken to starch is known no earlier than the 17th c.; Sw. has stärka to starch (app. already in 14th c.), and the derivative stärkelse starch (= WFlem. sterksel, a kind of starch used by weavers).
The formally equivalent OHG. sterchen (MHG. sterken, mod.G. stärken), OS. sterkian (MLG. sterken), (M)Du. sterken, (M)Sw. (? from LG.) stärka, have the sense ‘to strengthen.’]
† 1. trans. To stiffen, make rigid; to compose (one’s countenance) to a severe or formal expression. Obs.
1402. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 50. Who tytheth bot ȝe the anet and the mente, sterching ȝour faces [cf. Matt. vi. 16, exterminant (v.r. demoliuntur) facies suas], to be holden holi.
c. 1600[?]. Distr. Emperor, III. i. in Bullen, Old Pl. (1884), III. 209. Dothe not fawne, Nor croutche, nor crynge, nor startche his countenance.
2. To stiffen (linen, etc.) with starch.
14[?]. Lat.-Eng. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 613/31. Stibio, to starche.
c. 1450. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 367. Whan the sexteyn … hathe wasche the corporas ones, sche … schal wasche them, sterche them, drye them.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, IV. i. And aske you, where you bought your lawne? And … who starches you?
c. 1625. in Songs & Poems Costume (Percy Soc.), 111. About his neck a flaunting ruff,… Starched with white and blew.
1698. [see CONJEE].
1718. Free-thinker, No. 28. 197. A Milliner in the Neighbourhood … Starches his Ruffs.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, I. iv. White bands, clean and freshly starched, and a very full wig.
absol. 1614. Stow, Ann., 869/1. [They] made them cambrick Ruffes, and sent them to Mist. Dinghen, to starch…. And then they began to send their Daughters … to learne how to starch.
1624. J. Taylor (Water P.), Praise Cl. Linen, Wks. (1630), II. 169/1. She wrings, she folds, she pleits, she smoothes, she starches.
† b. with object the beard or moustache. Obs.
1589. Nashe, Pref. Greene’s Menaphon (Arb.), 10. Sufficeth them…, hauing starched their beardes most curiouslie, to make a peripateticall path into the inner parts of the Citie.
1642. Howell, For. Trav., v. 68. If the one hath a Fancy to stars his mustachos.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. i. 171. It [your beard] does your visage more adorn, Than if ’twere prun’d, and starcht, and lander’d, And cut square by the Russian Standard.
1731. Mrs. Eliz. Thomas, Life Corinna, p. xxi. His Valet being some Hours every Morning, in Starching his Beard, and Curling his Whiskers.
† c. fig. To make rigid, formal or precise; to frame (a discourse) in formal or pretentious terms. Also with up. Obs.
1615. A. Niccholes, Disc. Marriage & Wiving, vii. 21. But as to please woman hath much starched vp man from his slouenry, so to delight man … hath the woman thus increased in prides.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 64. How to be wisht were such an obedient unanimity as this, what a fine conformity would it starch us all into?
1677. Gilpin, Demonol. (1867), 161. A quaint discourse starched up in the dress of common rhetoric.
1680. C. Nesse, Ch. Hist., 141. Hushai … did defeat his counsel … by starching an oration every way accommodated to Absaloms ambitious humour.
1763. Brit. Mag., IV. 495. Tho’ with prudish airs she starch her, Still she longs.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Cl., 12 Sept. She starched up her behaviour with a double portion of reserve.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park, I. ix. 180. Starched up into seeming piety, but with heads full of something very different.
absol. 1698. M. Henry, Life P. Henry, viii. (1699), 117. He us’d to say, he could not Starch in his Preaching;… knowing where the Language … is stiff, and forced, and fine (as they call it) it doth not reach the greatest part of the Hearers.
3. † a. To fasten or stick with starch paste; also with on, up. Obs.
1602. Dekker, Satiro-m., E 3. I haue a set of letters readie starcht to my hands.
1673. Hickeringill, Gregory, 28. Some of the Common Herd of mankind … would quietly … pass by this Title Page, (when starch’d up with the Play-house Bills).
1676. T. Miller, Modellist, 4. In starching three or four sheets of paper together.
1717. S. Sewall, Diary, 8 Jan. (1882), III. 116. A virulent Libel was starch’d on upon the Three Doors of the Meeting House.
a. 1721. Prior, Sat. Poets, 66. And find’st thy Picture starch’d ’gainst Suburb Wall.
b. To apply a starch paste mountant to (a photographic print).
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 53. The print should be mounted dry, by starching the back and allowing it to dry and moistening the mount.
