From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishstarchstarch1 /stɑːtʃ $ stɑːrtʃ/ noun 1 [countable, uncountable]DFN a substance which provides your body with energy and is found in foods such as grain, rice, and potatoes, or a food that contains this substance SYN carbohydrate He eats a lot of starch. Avoid fatty foods and starches.2 [uncountable]DFC a substance that is mixed with water and is used to make cloth stiff
Examples from the Corpus
starch• Starches such as potatoes are a necessary part of most good diets.• Baked stuffed potatoes are an indulgent starch.• They are preferable to many sauces traditionally thickened with roux or other starches.• At this stage the fruit is hard and one quarter starch.• Easy-cook rice is par-boiled to remove the surface starch that causes the problems when cooking other long grain rices.• What I wan na do is load this kid up with all the starch he can take.• The starch in her collar had gone limp with the soaking.starchstarch2 verb [transitive] DCDHCto make cloth stiff, using starch a starched tableclothGrammar Starch is usually passive.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
starch• His shirt was so white that it must have been starched.• It advertised a character of fastidious and correct nature, some one whose collars would be uncomfortably starched.• These shirts need to be starched and ironed.• An older woman whose hair and dress were folded and starched leading a younger woman flushed with inexpert embarrassment.Origin starch2 (1400-1500) Probably from an unrecorded Old English stercan “to make stiff” 