a complex carbohydrate found chiefly in seeds, fruits, tubers, roots and stem pith of plants, notably in corn, potatoes, wheat, and rice; an important foodstuff and used otherwise especially in adhesives and as fillers and stiffeners for paper and textiles
any backward region that is isolated from the world and resists progress
a body of water that was created by a flood or tide or by being held or forced back by a dam; "the bayous and backwaters are breeding grounds for mosquitos"
a small cosmetics case with a mirror; to be carried in a woman's purse
a small and economical car
closely and firmly united or packed together; "compact soil"; "compact clusters of flowers"
having component parts closely crowded together; "a compact shopping center"; "a dense population"; "thick crowds"; "a thick forest"; "thick hair"
heavy and compact in form or stature; "a wrestler of compact build"; "he was tall and heavyset"; "stocky legs"; "a thick middle-aged man"; "a thickset young man"
have the property of being packable or of compacting easily; "This powder compacts easily"; "Such odd-shaped items do not pack well"
preserve with sugar; "Mom always conserved the strawberries we grew in the backyard"
use cautiously and frugally; "I try to economize my spare time"; "conserve your energy for the ascent to the summit"
keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss, or destruction; "We preserve these archeological findings"; "The old lady could not keep up the building"; "children must be taught to conserve our national heritage"; "The museum curator conserved the ancient manuscripts"
keep constant through physical or chemical reactions or evolutionary change; "Energy is conserved in this process"
American musteline mammal typically ejecting an intensely malodorous fluid when startled; in some classifications put in a separate subfamily Mephitinae
a vaguely specified social event; "the party was quite an affair"; "an occasion arranged to honor the president"; "a seemingly endless round of social functions"
a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship
edible seeds or roots or stems or leaves or bulbs or tubers or nonsweet fruits of any of numerous herbaceous plant
any of various herbaceous plants cultivated for an edible part such as the fruit or the root of the beet or the leaf of spinach or the seeds of bean plants or the flower buds of broccoli or cauliflower
of the nature of or characteristic of or derived from plants; "decaying vegetable matter"