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Starch
Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants as energy storage. It is the most common carbohydrate in human diets and is contained in large amounts in staple foods like potatoes, wheat, maize (corn), rice, and cassava.
Pure starch is a white, tasteless and odorless powder that is insoluble in cold water or alcohol. It consists of two types of molecules: the linear and helical amylose and the branched amylopectin. Depending on the plant, starch generally contains 20 to 25% amylose and 75 to 80% amylopectin by weight. Glycogen, the glucose store of animals, is a more highly branched version of amylopectin.
In industry, starch is converted into sugars, for example by malting, and fermented to produce ethanol in the manufacture of beer, whisky and biofuel. It is processed to produce many of the sugars used in processed foods. Mixing most starches in warm water produces a paste, such as wheatpaste, which can be used as a thickening, stiffening or gluing agent. The biggest industrial non-food use of starch is as an adhesive in the papermaking process. Starch can be applied to parts of some garments before ironing, to stiffen them.
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Starch (noun)
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.
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Starch (noun)
Carbohydrates, as with grain and potato based foods.
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Starch (noun)
A stiff, formal manner; formality.
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Starch (noun)
Any of various starch-like substances used as a laundry stiffener
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Starch (verb)
To apply or treat with laundry starch, to create a hard, smooth surface.
“She starched her blouses.”
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Starch (adjective)
Stiff; precise; rigid.
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Farina (noun)
A fine flour or meal made from cereal grains or from the starch or fecula of vegetables, extracted by various processes, and used in cookery.
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Starch (noun)
an odourless, tasteless white substance occurring widely in plant tissue and obtained chiefly from cereals and potatoes. It is a polysaccharide which functions as a carbohydrate store and is an important constituent of the human diet.
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Starch (noun)
food containing starch
“they eat far too much starch”
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Starch (noun)
powder or spray made from starch and used before ironing to stiffen fabric or clothing
“crisp linen, stiff with starch”
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Starch (noun)
stiffness of manner or character
“the starch in her voice”
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Starch (verb)
stiffen (fabric or clothing) with starch
“starch your collar to keep it straight and stiff”
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Starch (verb)
(of a boxer) defeat (an opponent) by a knockout
“Ray Domenge starched Jeff Geddami in the first”