reserve

From Old French reserver, from Latin reservō (“to reserve, retain”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈzɝv/

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈzɜːv/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)v
• Hyphenation: re‧serve

reserve (countable and uncountable, plural reserves)

1. A restriction.
   1. The act of reserving or keeping back; reservation; exception.

      The book is on reserve.

      I accept your view with one reserve.

   2. Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness; caution in personal behavior.
2. That which is reserved or kept back, as for future use.
   1. A natural resource known to exist but not currently exploited.

      New oil reserves are continuously being discovered, but not as fast as the existing ones are running out.

      • 2014 April 25, Martin Lukacs, “Canada becoming launch-pad of a global tar sands and oil shale frenzy”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 190, number 20, page 13:

        If Alberta’s reserves are a carbon bomb, this global expansion of tar sands and oil shale exploitation amounts to an escalating emissions arms race, the unlocking of a subterranean cache of weapons of mass ecological destruction.

   2. A tract of land reserved, or set apart, for a particular purpose

      the Connecticut Reserve in Ohio was originally set apart for the school fund of Connecticut.

      the Clergy Reserves in Canada are for the support of the clergy.

   4. (Canada) A tract of land set apart for the use of an Aboriginal group: Indian reserve.

      Alternative forms: res, rez (clippings)

      Synonym: reservation (US)

   5. (military) A body of troops kept in the rear of an army drawn up for battle, reserved to support the other lines as occasion may require; a force or body of troops kept for an exigency.

      no reserves [the military force is throwing everything it has at the front]

   6. (finance, insurance) Funds kept on hand to meet planned or unplanned financial requirements.
   • 2025 December 11, Charlie Campbell, Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo, “The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year”, in Time‎^[1]:

     The tone was set at Trump’s Inauguration. Tech moguls streamed into Washington; some sat behind the President during his Inaugural Address, a signal of the power they would wield. Over the next 11 months, they would use their enormous cash reserves, cultural power, and momentum to push their products into homes across the world.

   1. A reserve price in an auction.

      no reserve [the lot(s) will be sold no matter how low the bids are]

      reserve not met [the lot(s) will not be sold because the highest bid was too low to be acceptable]

   2. Wine held back and aged before being sold.
   3. (ceramics) Absence of color or decoration; the state of being left plain.
      • 1973, Charles Kyrle Wilkinson, Nishapur: Pottery of the Early Islamic Period, New York, N.Y: Metropolitan Museum of Art, page 161:

        Each is decorated with a simple disk in reserve and a band in reserve adorned with white dots.

3. Something initially kept back for later use in recreation.
   1. (sports) A member of a team who does not participate from the start of the game, but can be used to replace tired or injured team-mates.
   2. (card games) A group or pile of cards dealt out at the beginning of a patience or solitaire game to be used during play.
4. In exhibitions, a distinction indicating that the recipient will get a prize in the event of another person being disqualified.
5. (calico printing) A resist.
6. A preparation used on an object being electroplated to fix the limits of the deposit.

• (restraint of freedom in words or actions): self-restraint, reticence, taciturnity
• (sports: reserve player): substitute
• (military: reserve forces): Army Reserve, Territorial Army, TA, TAVR, territorials, terriers, reservists
• (tract of land for Aboriginal peoples): reservation, res, rez

• reservist

• → Ojibwe: ishkonigan (calque) (also of reservation)

reserve (third-person singular simple present reserves, present participle reserving, simple past and past participle reserved)

1. (transitive) To keep back; to retain.

   Synonym: hold

   We reserve the right to make modifications.

   I will reserve judgment until I have actually read his book.

2. (transitive, ditransitive)
   1. To keep in store for future or special use.

      Synonyms: hold, save

      This cake is reserved for the guests! (transitive)

      Please reserve me a parking space if you can. (ditransitive)

      • c. 1703-1720, Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Very Young Lady on Her Marriage

        Conceal your esteem and love in your own breast, and reserve your kind looks and language for private hours.

   2. To book in advance; to make a reservation for.

      Synonyms: sign up for, register for, schedule, enroll in, book

      I reserved a table for us at the best restaurant in town. (transitive)

      Thanks for reserving us a room! (ditransitive)

3. (transitive, obsolete) To make an exception of; to except.

• reserve on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “reserve”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Reveres, reveres, reverse, severer, veerers

Borrowed from Middle French reserve, from Old French reserver.

• IPA^(key): /rəˈzɛr.və/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧ser‧ve
• Rhymes: -ɛrvə

reserve f (plural reserves, diminutive reservetje n)

1. reserve, emergency supply (that which is reserved, or kept back, as for future use)
2. military reserves
3. reservation, restraint
4. (law, Belgium) forced estate, legitime

   Synonym: voorbehouden deel

   Antonym: beschikbaar deel

5. (sports) alternate, substitute, reserve

• reserveren

• Afrikaans: reserwe
• → Indonesian: reserve (“reserve”)
• >? Javanese: ꦱꦺꦉꦥ꧀ (sèrep, “spare”)
  • Caribbean Javanese: sèrep
  • → Indonesian: sèrêp (“spare”)

• serveer, servere, verrees

From Dutch reserve, from Old French reserver.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /rəˈservə/ [rəˈser.fə]
• Rhymes: -ervə
• Syllabification: re‧ser‧ve

rêsérvê (plural reserve-reserve)

1. (colloquial) reserve

   Synonyms: cadangan, serap

2. (colloquial) requirement

   Synonym: syarat

• rizab (Standard Malay)

• “reserve”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Via German Reserve from French réserve

reserve m (definite singular reserven, indefinite plural reserver, definite plural reservene)

1. a reserve

• reservedel

• reservere

• “reserve” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “reserve” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Via German Reserve from French réserve

reserve m (definite singular reserven, indefinite plural reservar, definite plural reservane)

1. a reserve

• reservedel

• “reserve” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

reserve

1. inflection of reservar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

reserve

1. inflection of reservar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative