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Maintain vs Preserve - What's the difference?

maintain | preserve |

As verbs the difference between maintain and preserve

is that maintain is to support (someone), to back up or assist (someone) in an action while preserve is to protect; to keep from harm or injury.

As a noun preserve is

a sweet spread made of any of a variety of berries.

maintain

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (obsolete) To support (someone), to back up or assist (someone) in an action.
  • *:
  • *:And thenne he asked leue & wente oute of his heremytage for to mayntene his neuewe ageynst the myghty Erle / and so hit happed that this man that lyeth here dede dyd so moche by his wysedome and hardynes that the Erle was take and thre of his lordes by force of this dede man
  • To keep up; to preserve; to uphold (a state, condition etc.).
  • *, chapter=17
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.}}
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 5, author=Phil Dawkes, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= QPR 2-3 Man City , passage=Mancini's men were far from their best but dug in to earn a 10th win in 11 league games and an eighth successive victory in all competitions to maintain their five-point lead at the top of the table.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-03, author=Nancy Langston, volume=101, issue=2, page=98
  • , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Mining the Boreal North , passage=Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages.}}
  • To declare or affirm (a clause) to be true; to assert.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 19, author=Josh Halliday, work=the Guardian
  • , title= Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised? , passage=She maintains that the internet should face similar curbs to TV because young people are increasingly living online. "It's totally different, someone at Google watching the video from the comfort of their office in San Francisco to someone from a council house in London, where this video is happening right outside their front door."}}

    Derived terms

    * maintainability

    Antonyms

    * (to keep up) abandon

    Anagrams

    *

    preserve

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Noun

  • A sweet spread made of any of a variety of berries.
  • A reservation, a nature preserve.
  • *1881 , :
  • *:Suppose Shakespeare had been knocked on the head some dark night in preserves , the world would have wagged on better or worse, the pitcher gone to the well, the scythe to the corn, and the student to his book; and no one been any the wiser of the loss.
  • An activity with restricted access.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= T time , passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.}}

    Usage notes

    More often used in the plural, as strawberry preserves'', but the form without the ''-s can also be used as the plural form, or to refer to a single type.

    Synonyms

    * jam * jelly * marmalade

    See also

    * preserver

    Verb

    (preserv)
  • To protect; to keep from harm or injury.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Now, good angels preserve the king.
  • * (Yuri Gagarin)
  • Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it.
  • To save from decay by the use of some preservative substance, such as as sugar or salt; to season and prepare (fruits, meat, etc.) for storage.
  • to preserve peaches or grapes
  • To maintain throughout; to keep intact.
  • to preserve''' appearances; to '''preserve silence

    Anagrams

    * perverse ----