Definition of starch

• a. - Stiff; precise; rigid.
• n. - 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.
• n. - Fig.: A stiff, formal manner; formality.
• v. t. - To stiffen with starch.