Showing results for "preserved"

• past participle of preserve.
• past tense form of preserve.

preserved

American  

[pri-zurvd] / prɪˈzɜrvd /

adjective

1. (of food or any perishable substance) prepared by canning, pickling, salting, or the like, or treated by some process to prevent decomposition or fermentation.

   I had never had such fresh-tasting preserved fruit before.

2. kept safe from harm or injury; protected or spared.

   This is a wonderfully preserved example of Mayan cave art.

3. kept up or maintained; kept in good condition or health.

   Tucked in Amsterdam’s inner city is a uniquely preserved 17th-century house from the Dutch Golden Age.

4. kept alive or in existence.

   When I take a portrait photograph, I’m capturing a moment in a life, making it a preserved memory.

5. (of game or fish, natural habitats, etc.) maintained or reserved for continued hunting or fishing, or for private or public use and appreciation.

   New walking trails will be built through the preserved areas of parkland.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of preserve.

Other Word Forms

• semipreserved
  adjective
• unpreserved
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of preserved

First recorded in 1550–60; preserve ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; preserve ( def. ) + -ed ¹ ( def. ) for the verb sense

Explanation

Something that's preserved is kept in its original state or kept alive and fresh. Preserved artifacts are protected from damage, often in a museum where they can be kept safe. Preserved food is treated in some way that makes it spoil much more slowly than it would otherwise. Sometimes this is done by adding chemical preservatives, and other times it's a more natural process, involving drying, pickling, salting, or canning. Preserved fruit, cooked with sugar and sealed in jars, is also called preserves. These words all stem from the Medieval Latin preservare, "keep safe."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

preserved

The Book of Jubilees, one of the important works preserved in the Qumran library, strongly criticizes the prevailing lunar calendar.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

But on some occasions, he said, he had been told that records run by homes of different religious orders were "destroyed in floods, fires... only for it later to transpire that they have been preserved".

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

“Scientific American” cautioned in 1939 that “as much water as possible must be preserved to replenish ground water storage.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

“SB 1392 establishes a carefully limited exemption for cars that are preserved, driven sparingly, and maintained as part of California’s automotive heritage.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

“But I think the mastodons died and their bodies got run over, and then frozen and preserved in ice.”

From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon

Related Words

• covered
• guaranteed
• guarded
• secured
• sheltered