Reserve \Re*serve"\, n. [F. r['e]serve.]
   1. The act of reserving, or keeping back; reservation.
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            However any one may concur in the general scheme, it
            is still with certain reserves and deviations.
                                                  --Addison.
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   2. That which is reserved, or kept back, as for future use.
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            The virgins, besides the oil in their lamps, carried
            likewise a reserve in some other vessel for a
            continual supply.                     --Tillotson.
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   3. That which is excepted; exception.
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            Each has some darling lust, which pleads for a
            reserve.                              --Rogers.
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   4. Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness;
      caution in personal behavior.
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            My soul, surprised, and from her sex disjoined,
            Left all reserve, and all the sex, behind. --Prior.
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            The clergyman's shy and sensitive reserve had balked
            this scheme.                          --Hawthorne.
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   5. A tract of land reserved, or set apart, for a particular
      purpose; as, the Connecticut Reserve in Ohio, originally
      set apart for the school fund of Connecticut; the Clergy
      Reserves in Canada, for the support of the clergy.
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   6. (Mil.)
      (a) A body of troops in the rear of an army drawn up for
          battle, reserved to support the other lines as
          occasion may require; a force or body of troops kept
          for an exigency.
      (b) troops trained but released from active service,
          retained as a formal part of the military force, and
          liable to be recalled to active service in cases of
          national need (see Army organization, above).
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   7. (Banking) Funds kept on hand to meet liabilities.
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   8. (Finance)
      (a) That part of the assets of a bank or other financial
          institution specially kept in cash in a more or less
          liquid form as a reasonable provision for meeting all
          demands which may be made upon it; specif.:
      (b) (Banking) Usually, the uninvested cash kept on hand
          for this purpose, called the real reserve. In Great
          Britain the ultimate real reserve is the gold kept on
          hand in the Bank of England, largely represented by
          the notes in hand in its own banking department; and
          any balance which a bank has with the Bank of England
          is a part of its reserve. In the United States the
          reserve of a national bank consists of the amount of
          lawful money it holds on hand against deposits, which
          is required by law (in 1913) to be not less than 15
          per cent (--U. S. Rev. Stat. secs. 5191, 5192), three
          fifths of which the banks not in a reserve city (which
          see) may keep deposited as balances in national banks
          that are in reserve cities (--U. S. Rev. Stat. sec.
          5192).
      (c) (Life Insurance) The amount of funds or assets
          necessary for a company to have at any given time to
          enable it, with interest and premiums paid as they
          shall accure, to meet all claims on the insurance then
          in force as they would mature according to the
          particular mortality table accepted. The reserve is
          always reckoned as a liability, and is calculated on
          net premiums. It is theoretically the difference
          between the present value of the total insurance and
          the present value of the future premiums on the
          insurance. The reserve, being an amount for which
          another company could, theoretically, afford to take
          over the insurance, is sometimes called the

   reinsurance fund or the

   self-insurance fund. For the first year upon any policy the
      net premium is called the

   initial reserve, and the balance left at the end of the
      year including interest is the

   terminal reserve. For subsequent years the initial reserve
      is the net premium, if any, plus the terminal reserve of
      the previous year. The portion of the reserve to be
      absorbed from the initial reserve in any year in payment
      of losses is sometimes called the

   insurance reserve, and the terminal reserve is then called
      the

   investment reserve.
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   9. In exhibitions, a distinction which indicates that the
      recipient will get a prize if another should be
      disqualified.
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   10. (Calico Printing) A resist.
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   11. A preparation used on an object being electroplated to
       fix the limits of the deposit.
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