reserve
Verbreserves, reserving, reserved
Noun pluralreserves
Formsreserves, reserving, reserved
Pluralreserves
- 1To book in advance, arranging for something to be held and set aside for your later use.
She reserved a hotel room months before the conference began.
Travelers often reserve tickets online to guarantee a seat.
UsageClose to book: reserve a table or make a reservation for one; it can take two objects (reserve us a room).
- 2To keep something for yourself, holding it back from others rather than giving it up or handing it over.
Authorities reserve the power to revoke a license at any time.
The seller reserved title to the goods until full payment was made.
UsageMostly in reserve the right to do something and reserve judgment (wait for the facts before deciding).
Similarhold
Oppositerelinquish, surrender, waive
- 3To keep something in store for future use or for a special occasion.
They reserve the corner office for visiting executives.
She reserved her energy for the final lap of the race.
UsageYou reserve something for a person or occasion; the passive is common: reserved for guests.
Similarsave
Note
Usually something is kept for a person or an occasion, and the passive is common, as in a cake reserved for the guests. In A Letter to a Very Young Lady on Her Marriage, Jonathan Swift advises a new bride to "reserve your kind looks and language for private hours," the same keeping-for applied to behavior.
- 4A supply of something, including money, kept back for future use or to meet expected or unexpected needs.
The hospital keeps a small reserve of blood for emergencies when regular supplies run short.
By the tenth hour of the negotiation, she was drawing on her last reserves of patience.
UsageOften plural: reserves of cash or energy. Keep something in reserve to have it ready later; draw on reserves when needed.
- 5An area of land or water set apart and kept for a particular purpose, such as protecting wildlife or preserving habitat.
The government created a marine reserve along the coast.
Several game reserves border the national park.
UsageOften a nature, game or marine reserve; animals live in a reserve.
Similarsanctuary, preserve, refuge
Note
Land set aside could be meant to fund an institution as readily as to protect a habitat. Canada's Clergy Reserves were for the support of the clergy, and Ohio's Western Reserve was land Connecticut kept back when it ceded its other western claims. In such proper names the word is capitalized and may be plural. Keep this general sense distinct from land set apart for Aboriginal groups.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Land reserves could provide institutional funding; Canada's Clergy Reserves supported the clergy. publications.gc.ca
- The Western Reserve was land in present-day Ohio that Connecticut retained when ceding its other western claims. en.wikipedia.org
- 6A quantity of a natural resource that is known to exist but has not yet been extracted or used.
Geologists estimated the copper reserve at several million tons.
The country's coal reserves should last for many decades.
UsageMost often plural, after the resource: oil reserves, gas reserves, a country's coal reserves.
Similardeposit
Note
The word measures what is still in the ground, so reserves can be discovered, and they can run out as they are used up. Martin Lukacs, writing in 2014, pictures Alberta's reserves as "a carbon bomb." He treats the stock in the ground as the emissions it would release.
- 7A military force of trained members who usually serve part-time and can be mobilized for full-time service when needed.
When the floods hit, the reserve was called up to work alongside the regular troops.
He spent twenty years in the reserves, fitting weekend drills around his job as an electrician.
UsagePeople serve in the reserves and are called up when needed; one member is a reservist.
Note
Here the holding back is measured in years, not hours: unlike troops kept behind the line during a battle, these members mostly live civilian lives until they are called up.
- 8Restraint in speech or behavior; a tendency to hold back and act with caution around others.
Her reserve melted once she felt comfortable with the group.
He answered every question with a polite reserve that revealed nothing.
UsageSaid of a person's manner: her natural reserve, break through someone's reserve; the adjective is reserved.
- 9A team member who starts on the bench but can come on to replace a tired or injured player.
The manager named two reserves on the bench for the cup final.
He spent his first year as a reserve before becoming a regular starter.
Similarsubstitute, replacement, backup
Oppositestarter
Note
A team sheet names the starters and the reserves. A reserve waits off the field at the start and comes on when a teammate tires, is injured or is underperforming. Like the military reserve, it is strength held back until the game calls for it, and a player can spend a season as a reserve before winning a regular place.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- A team sheet includes the starting players and substitutes. theifab.com
- Substitutes can replace tired, injured or underperforming players. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- 10A body of troops held back from the fighting line, ready to support the other units when the situation demands.
The commander committed the reserve only at the decisive moment.
The general kept his reserve behind the ridge until the enemy line began to break.
Similarreinforcements
Note
A tactical term for the part of an army kept out of the first line, so that a commander can decide later where it is needed. It may reinforce a weak point, exploit a success or stabilize a wavering line. Commanders commit the reserve. To have no reserves means every unit is already committed, with nothing held back.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A tactical reserve consists of troops withheld from initial action for later employment. army.mil
- Reserves can exploit success or support forces in difficulty. api.army.mil
- Having no reserves means no force is held back for later commitment; committed forces can also operate in rear areas. glostat.com
- 11An area of land set apart for the use of an Aboriginal or Indigenous group.
The community council manages housing and services across the reserve.
Several families moved off the reserve to find work in the city.
UsagePeople live on a reserve and move off it; the US word for such land is reservation.
Similarreservation
Note
A term used in Canada, often in the phrase Indian reserve, and in Australia for an Aboriginal reserve. It is a specialized use of land set apart for a purpose.
Less common meanings
- 12The act of reserving or keeping something back; a qualification or exception.
The board approved the budget without reserve.
Having read every page of the report, the committee endorsed its findings without reserve.
UsageMostly in the phrase without reserve, meaning fully, with nothing held back.
Similarqualification, proviso, condition, limitation
Note
The root idea of the noun, carried over from the verb: Old French reserver, from Latin reservō, "to retain." Two fixed uses keep it alive. A book on reserve is held back from ordinary lending. To accept a view with one reserve is to accept it with one point withheld, much like a reservation. Most other noun senses of the word name something kept back in this way.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The noun's keeping-back meaning reflects the meaning of the verb. en.wiktionary.org
- Reserve derives from Old French reserver, from Latin reservō, meaning to retain. en.wiktionary.org
- 13The minimum price a seller is willing to accept for an item at auction, below which it will not be sold.
Bidding stalled well below the reserve, so the painting went home unsold.
Several lots were withdrawn after failing to reach their reserves.
UsageAlso reserve price. Bids meet or reach it; no reserve means the lot sells however low the bidding goes.
- 14Wine that a producer holds back and ages for a period before putting it on sale.
The estate holds back its finest grapes for a reserve aged three years in oak.
Collectors prize the producer's reserve, which spends a decade maturing before release.
- 15To make an exception of something; to except it or set it apart.
Note
No longer in use, this was the older sense in which reserving something meant excepting it, leaving it outside a general rule or grant. In older legal and formal English, a party might reserve one case from an agreement's terms. Modern English says except or exclude. The idea survives in the noun of qualification, as in accepting a view with one reserve.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Reserve formerly meant to except something; this sense is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
- Older legal English used reserve for excluding something from a grant. tile.loc.gov
- 16At an exhibition, a placing indicating that the recipient will receive a prize if another prizewinner is disqualified.
- 17A pile of cards dealt out at the start of a patience or solitaire game, drawn on during play.
- 18The absence of color or decoration; an area deliberately left plain.
- 19A substance applied to selected areas of a surface to prevent dye from taking or metal from being deposited there.
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Practice
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Origin
Latin reservō, meaning "to reserve" or "to retain," reached English by way of Old French reserver.