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Fewness; smallness of number; scarcity. Hooker. Revelation denies it by the stern reserve, the paucity, and the incompleteness, of its communications. I. Taylor.

To treat or preserve, as wood, by a process resembling kyanizing.

pedigree. Milton. I am no herald to inquire of men's pedigrees. Sir P. Sidney. The Jews preserved the pedigrees of their tribes. Atterbury.

The skin of a beast with the hair on; a raw or undressed hide; a skin preserved with the hairy or woolly covering on it. See 4th Fell. Sir T. Browne. Raw pelts clapped about them for their clothes. Fuller.

in some dioceses since A. D. 1215, vested with power from the bishop to absolve in cases reserved to him.

To make perpetual; to cause to endure, or to be continued, indefinitely; to preserve from extinction or oblivion; to eternize. Addison. Burke.

The breast. In petto, in the breast; hence, in secrecy; in reserve.

tance, having a characteristic disagreeable smell. It is very active chemically, must be preserved under water, and unites with oxygen even at ordinary temperatures, giving a faint glow, -- whence its name. It always occurs compined, usually in phosphates, as in the mineral apatite, in bones, etc. It is used in the com…

A solution of salt and water, in which fish, meat, etc., may be preserved or corned; brine.

A herring preserved in brine; a pickled herring. [Obs.] Shak.

Preserved in a pickle.

ed in calking the seams of ships; also in coating rope, canvas, wood, ironwork, etc., to preserve them. He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith. Ecclus. xiii. 1.

Speaking with plain, unreserved sincerity; also, spoken sincerely; as, plain-spoken words. Dryden.

Lavish; profuse; prodigal. [Obs.] He that is plentiful in expenses will hardly be preserved from Bacon. -- Plen"ti*ful*ly, adv. -- Plen"ti*ful*ness, n.

Fully; roundly; plainly; without reserve. [Colloq.]

Military police, the body of soldiers detailed to preserve civil order and attend to sanitary arrangements in a camp or garrison.

g, or having the power of assuming, many forms; as, a polyplastic element which does not preserve its original shape.

To preserve seasoned in pots. "Potted fowl and fish." Dryden.

Capable of being preserved; admitting of preservation.

The act or process of preserving, or keeping safe; the state of being preserved, or kept from injury, destruction, or decay; security; safety; as, preservation of life, fruit, game, etc.; a picture in good preservation. Give us particulars of thy preservation. Shak.