(uncountable) A widely diffused vegetable substance, found especially in seeds, bulbs and tubers, as extracted (e.g. from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) in the form of a white, glistening, granular or powdery substance, without taste or smell, and giving a very peculiar creaking sound when rubbed between the fingers. It is used as a food, in the production of commercial grape sugar, for stiffening linen in laundries, in making paste, etc.

To apply or treat with laundry starch, to create a hard, smooth surface.

Stiff; precise; rigid.

simple past tense and past participle of starch

Of a garment: having had starch applied. / Stiff, formal, rigid; prim and proper.

plural of starch

Third-person singular simple present indicative form of starch

present participle of starch

Stiffness of manner; preciseness. / The quality of being starched; stiff formality.

A very fine powder derived from the cassava root, used in cooking.