reserve

1. 1.

   hold back or set aside, especially for future use or contingency

   “they held back their applause in anticipation”

   Broaderwithhold

   Narrowerdevote
2. 2.

   give or assign a resource to a particular person or cause

   “I will earmark this money for your research”

   “She sets aside time for meditation every day”

   Synonymsallowappropriateearmarkset aside

   Broaderassign
3. 3.

   obtain or arrange (for oneself) in advance

   “We managed to reserve a table at Maxim's”

   Broaderrequest

   Narrowerbook up
4. 4.

   arrange for and reserve (something for someone else) in advance

   “reserve me a seat on a flight”

   “The agent booked tickets to the show for the whole family”

   “please hold a table at Maxim's”

   Synonymsholdbook

   Broaderrequest

   Narrowerkeep open

Other forms of reserve

plural

reserves·

past tense

reserved·

present participle

reserving·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about reserve

What does reserve mean?

reserve means "formality and propriety of manner". That is the primary sense; the word has 11 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in reserve?

reserve has 2 syllables: re-serve. The stress falls on "serve". In IPA it is /ɹɪˈzɝv/.

What is another word for reserve?

Close synonyms include modesty, backlog, stockpile, substitute, second-stringer. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is reserve a common word?

reserve is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with reserve?

3 words rhyme with reserve. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.