starched

UK: /ˈstɑː^rtʃt/ US: /stɑrtʃt/

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

starched /stɑrtʃt/  adj. 

1. made stiff with starch;
   treated with starch.

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

starch /stɑrtʃ/   n. 

1. a white, tasteless chemical substance in plants, forming an important component of rice, corn, wheat, and many other vegetable foods:
   [uncountable] a food rich in starch.
   [countable] There are several different starches in that food.
2. [uncountable] a commercial preparation of this substance used to stiffen textile fabrics in laundering.
3. starches, [plural] foods rich in natural starch:
   not enough starches in his diet.

v. [~ + object]

4. to stiffen or treat with starch:
   to starch the shirts at the cleaners.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

starch (stärch),  n. 

1. a white, tasteless, solid carbohydrate, (C₆H₁₀O₅)_n, occurring in the form of minute granules in the seeds, tubers, and other parts of plants, and forming an important constituent of rice, corn, wheat, beans, potatoes, and many other vegetable foods.
2. a commercial preparation of this substance used to stiffen textile fabrics in laundering.
3. starches, foods rich in natural starch.
4. stiffness or formality, as of manner:
   He is so full of starch he can't relax.
5. Informal Terms vigor;
   energy;
   stamina;
   boldness.

v.t. 

6. to stiffen or treat with starch.
7. to make stiff or rigidly formal (sometimes fol. by up).

• 1375–1425; (verb, verbal) late Middle English sterchen origin, originally, to stiffen, Old English stercean to make stiff, strengthen, derivative of stearc stark; cognate with German stärken to strengthen; (noun, nominal) late Middle English starch(e), sterche, derivative of the verb, verbal

starch′less, adj. 
starch′like′, adj. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

starch / stɑːtʃ/ noun

1. a polysaccharide composed of glucose units that occurs widely in plant tissues in the form of storage granules, consisting of amylose and amylopectin
2. Also called: amylum a starch obtained from potatoes and some grain: it is fine white powder that forms a translucent viscous solution on boiling with water and is used to stiffen fabric and in many industrial processes
3. any food containing a large amount of starch, such as rice and potatoes
4. stiff or pompous formality of manner or conduct

verb

1. (transitive) to stiffen with or soak in starch

Etymology: Old English stercan (unattested except by the past participle sterced) to stiffen; related to Old Saxon sterkian, Old High German sterken to strengthen, Dutch sterken; see stark

ˈstarcher noun