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Retain vs Preserve - What's the difference?

retain | preserve |

As verbs the difference between retain and preserve

is that retain is to keep in possession or use 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.

retain

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To keep in possession or use.
  • * Milton
    • Be obedient, and retain / Unalterably firm his love entire.
  • * 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
    • A strange thing was that Bovary, while continually thinking of Emma, was forgetting her. He grew desperate as he felt this image fading from his memory in spite of all efforts to retain it. Yet every night he dreamt of her; it was always the same dream. He drew near her, but when he was about to clasp her she fell into decay in his arms.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
    • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}
  • To keep in one's pay or service.
  • * Addison
    • A Benedictine convent has now retained the most learned father of their order to write in its defence.
  • To employ by paying a retainer.
  • To hold secure.
  • (obsolete) To restrain; to prevent.
  • (obsolete) To belong; to pertain.
  • * Boyle
    • A somewhat languid relish, retaining to bitterness.

    Synonyms

    * keep

    Related terms

    * retainer, retention

    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 ----