Dictionary

starched en · ADJ

Meanings

1. Of a garment: having had starch applied.
   • I recall the height of comfort attained by the green-cushioned "first" with starched white antimacassars and a pretentious grey floor mat on which it seemed a sacrilege to stand, as it was embellished with the North Western conception of Britannia, complete with trident. 1951 October 14, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, pages 703-704:
   • And while his signature starched collar and fingerless gloves are yet to make an appearance, his looks are already topped off with another of his soon-to-be trademarks: a pair of dark aviator sunglasses. 2024 June 3, Caitlin Chatterton, “‘Becoming Karl Lagerfeld:’ A flattering sketch of a controversial designer”, in CNN:
2. Stiff, formal, rigid; prim and proper.
   • Does the Gospel any where prescribe a starched squeezed Countenance, a stiff formal Gait, a Singularity of Manners and Habit, or any affected Modes of Speech, different from the reasonable Part of Mankind? 1712, Jonathan Swift, “An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity”, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, volume 1, Dublin: George Faulkner, published 1751, pages 102-103:
   • ‘[…] CD is a fair-enough scholar but starched like my grand-daddy’s collar.’ 1961, Bernard Malamud, A New Life, Penguin, published 1968, page 107:
   • I was not a little startled at recognising in his companions that very Morris on whose account I had been summoned before Justice Inglewood, and Mr MacVittie the merchant, at whose starched and severe aspect I had recoiled on the preceding day. 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter XII, in Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 245:
   • A cultivated understanding, and an affectionate heart, will never want starched rules of decorum—something more substantial than seemliness will be the result; and, without understanding the behaviour here recommended, would be rank affectation. 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Animadversions on Some of the Writers who have Rendered Women Objects of Pity, Bordering on Contempt”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC, page 217:

Forms

Deriveds

starchedness · unstarched · starchedly · nonstarched

Relateds

cornstarched

starched en · VERB

Meanings

1. (form-of, participle, past) simple past and past participle of starch
   form of starch