Starch

a.	1.	Stiff; precise; rigid.
n.	1.	(Chem.) A widely diffused vegetable substance found especially in seeds, bulbs, and tubers, and extracted (as from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) as 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.
	2.	Fig.: A stiff, formal manner; formality. Starch hyacinth (Bot.) the grape hyacinth; - so called because the flowers have the smell of boiled starch. See under Grape.
v. t.	1.	To stiffen with starch. [imp. & p. p. Starched (stärcht); p. pr. & vb. n. Starching.]

Noun	1.	starch - a complex carbohydrate found chiefly in seeds, fruits, tubers, roots and stem pith of plants, notably in corn, potatoes, wheat, and rice; an important foodstuff and used otherwise especially in adhesives and as fillers and stiffeners for paper and textiles Synonyms: amylum
Verb	1.	starch - stiffen with starch; "starch clothes"

another name for carbohydrate, one of the three main nutrients in food.

aggressiveness, albumen, bang, batter, bonnyclabber, butter, carbohydrate, clabber, cornstarch, cream, curd, dash, dough, drive, egg white, enterprise, fire, gaum, gel, gelatin, get-up-and-go, getup, ginger, glair, glop, glue, gluten, go, goo, gook, goop, gruel, gumbo, gunk, hydroxy aldehyde, hydroxy ketone, initiative, jam, jell, jelly, kick, loblolly, molasses, monosaccharide, mucilage, mucus, pap, paste, pep, pepper, piss and vinegar, pizzazz, polysaccharide, polysaccharose, poop, porridge, pudding, pulp, punch, puree, push, putty, rob, saccharide, semifluid, semiliquid, size, snap, soup, spunk, sticky mess, sugar, syrup, thrust, treacle, trisaccharide, verve, vim, vitality, zing, zip