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Serving to compel; compulsory. [R.]

Serving for compensation; making amends. Jer. Taylor.

Serving to fill out or to complete; as, complementary numbers. Complementary colors. See under Color. -- Complementary angles (Math.), two angles whose sum is 90°.

Serving to fulfill. Completory of ancient presignifications. Barrow.

Serving, or helping, to form; composing; constituting; constituent. The component parts of natural bodies. Sir I. Newton.

Serving or tending to concentrate; characterized by concentration. A discrimination is only possible by a concentrative act, or act of attention. Sir W. Hamilton.

Worthy; suitable; deserving; fit. [Obs.] Condign and worthy praise. Udall. Herself of all that rule she deemend most condign. Spenser.

Same as Leader. Prime conductor (Elec.), the largest conductor of an electrical machine, serving to collect, accumulate, or retain the electricity.

Serving to confirm; corroborative. A fact confirmatory of the conclusion. I. Taylor.

Serving to unite; connecting together.

The act of preserving, guarding, or protecting; the keeping (of a thing) in a safe or entire state; preservation. A step necessary for the conservation of Protestantism. Hallam. A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation. Burke. Conservation of areas (Astron.), the principle that…

An officer who has charge of preserving the public peace, as a justice or sheriff.

Having the quality of preserving from loss, decay, or injury.

Serving to unite or consolidate; having the quality of consolidating or making firm.

Serving to form, compose, or make up; elemental; component. Body, soul, and reason are the three parts necessarily constituent of a man. Dryden.

Serving or tending to bind or constrict.

Serving to consummate; completing. "The final, the consummative procedure of philosophy." Sir W. Hamilton.

Worthy of contempt; deserving of scorn or disdain; mean; vile; despicable. Milton. The arguments of tyranny are ascontemptible as its force is dreadful. Burke.

Serving to restrain or limit; restraining; opposing. [Obs.] Shak.

gates from all the States, to meet in Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of reserving the federal system, and correcting its defects. W. Irving.