star-capsicum 
star-capsicum (star'kap"si-kum), H. See <So- 
Uinum. 
Star-catalogue (star'kafa-log), n. An ex- 
tended list of fixed stars, as complete as pos- 
sible within specified limits of magnitude, 
place, etc., with their places and magnitudes. 
Starch 1 (starch), a. [< ME. *starche, starch, 
assibilated form of stark, sterk, strong, stiff: 
see stark 1 .] If. Strong; hard; tough. 
Nis non so strong, ne sterch, ne kene, 
That inai ago deathes wither blench. 
MS. Cott. Calii/., A. ix. f. 243. (BalKweU.) 
2. Rigid; hence, precise. 
When tall Susannah, maiden starch, stalk'd in. 
Crabbe, Works, IV. 85. 
starch 2 (starch), . [< ME. starchc (= MHG. 
sterke. G. stcirke), starch ; so called from its use 
in stiffening; < starch 1 , a., stiff: see starch 1 , a.] 
1 . A proximate principle of plants, having the 
formula CgH-igOg, or a multiple of that formula. 
It is a white opaque glistening powder, odorless, taste- 
less, and insoluble in cold water, alcohol, or ether. Aque- 
ous solutions containing free iodine impart to starch an 
intense and very characteristic blue color. It is not crys- 
talline, but occurs naturally in fine granules, which are 
always made up of flue concentric layers. Whether the 
grains contain a small quantity of another chemical body, 
allied to but not identical with starch, called starch cel- 
lulose or farinose, is a disputed question. When heated 
with water to 60-70 C., starch swells up and forms a 
paste or jelly. When heated in the dry state to 150'- 
200 C. , it is converted into dextrine, a soluble gum-like 
body much used as a cheap substitute for gum arable. 
Heated with dilute mineral acids, or digested with saliva, 
pancreatic juice, diastase, or certain other enzyius, starch 
dissolves, and is resolved into a number of products, which 
are chiefly dextrine, maltose, and dextrose the last two 
being fermentable sugars. The malting of barley by brew- 
ITS effects this change in the starch of the grain, and so 
prepares it for vinous fermentation. Starch is widely dis- 
tributed, being formed in all vegetable cells containing 
chlorophyl-grains under the action 
of sunlight, and deposited in all 
parts of the plant which serve as a 
reserve store of plant-food. Hence 
grains and seeds contain an abun- 
dance of it, also numerous tubers 
and rhizomes, as the potato and the 
arrowroot, and the stem and pith 
of many plants, as the sago-plant. 
The chief commercial sources of 
supply are wheat, corn, and pota- 
toes. From these it is manufac- 
tured on an extensive scale, being 
used in the arts, for laundry pur- 
poses, sizing, finishing calicos, 
thickening colors and mordants in 
calico-printing, and for other pur- 
poses. Starch forms the greatest 
part of all farinaceous substances, 
particularly of wheatrflour. 
2. A preparation of commercial starch with 
boiling (or less frequently cold) water, used in 
the laundry or factory for stiffening linen or 
cotton fabrics before ironing. In the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries the starch used for ruffs, cuffs, etc. , 
was frequently colored, yellow being at one time extremely 
fashionable. Blue starch was affected by the Puritans. 
A certaine kinde of liquide matter which they call starch, 
wherein the devill hath willed them to wash and dive their 
ruffes, which, when they be dry, will then stand stiffe and 
inflexible about their necks. Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses. 
3. A stiff, formal manner; starchedness. [Col- 
loq.] 
This professor is to give the society their stiffening, and 
infuse into their manners that beautiful political starch 
which may qualify them for levees, conferences, visits. 
Addison, Spectator, No. 305. 
The free-born Westerner thinks the blamed Yankee 
puts on a yard too much style the Boys don't approve of 
style and suavely proposes to take the starch out of him. 
Great American Language, Cornhill Mag., Oct., 1888, p. 375. 
Animal starch. Same as glycogen, i. Glycerite of 
starch, one part of starch and nine of glycerin, triturated 
into a smooth mixture. Poland starch, blue starch. 
Starch bandage, a bandage stiffened, after application 
with starch. Starch bath, a hot- water bath containing 
starch, used in eczema. 
Starch 2 (starch), r. t. [< starch*, .] To stiffen 
with starch. 
She made her wash, she made her starch. 
Queen Eleanor's FaU (Child's Ballads, VII. 296). 
Star-chamber (star'cham"ber), . [Early mod. 
E. starre-chamber (poetically chamber of starres 
(Skelton), late AF. chambre des estoylles), < late 
ME. sterre-chambre (Rolls of Parliament, 1450- 
1460, cited by Oliphant, in "New English," I. 
293), also sterred chamber, i. e. 'starred cham- 
ber' (ML. camera stellata); so called because 
the roof was orig. ornamented with stars, or 
for some other reason not now definitely known 
(see the quot. from Minsheu) ; < star 1 + cham- 
ber. The statement, made doubtfully by Black- 
stone and more confidently by other writers 
(as by J. E. Green, " Short Hist, of the Eng. 
People," p. 115), that the chamber was so 
called because it was made the depository 
of Jewish bonds called stars or starrs (< Heb. 
shetar) rests on no ME. evidence, and is in- 
5906 
consistent with the ME. and ML. forms of the 
name; it is appar. due to the tendency of some 
writers to reject etymologies that are obvious, 
on the unacknowledged ground that being ob- 
vious they must be "popular" and therefore 
erroneous.] 1. {cap.'] In Eny, hist., a court 
of civil and criminal jurisdiction at Westmin- 
ster, constituted in view of offenses and con- 
troversies most frequent at the royal court or 
affecting the interests of the crown, such as 
maintenance, fraud, libel, conspiracy, riots re- 
sulting from faction or oppression, but freely 
taking jurisdiction of other crimes and mis- 
demeanors also, and administering justice by 
arbitrary authority instead of according to the 
common law. Such a jurisdiction was exercised at 
least as early as the reign of Henry VI., the tribunal then 
consisting of the Privy Council. A statute of 3 Henry 
VII. authorized a committee of the council to exercise 
such a jurisdiction, and this tribunal grew in power (al- 
though successive statutes from the time of Edward IV. 
were enacted to restrain it) until it fell into disuse in 
the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII. In 31 Henry 
VIII., c. 8, a statute declared that the king's proclamation 
should have the force of law, and that offenders might be 
punished by the ordinary members of the council sitting 
with certain bishops and judges " in the Sterr Chamber at 
Westm. or elsewhere." In 1640 the court of Star Chamber 
was abolished by an act of 16 Charles I., c. 10, reciting that 
"the reasons and motives inducing the erection and con- 
tinuance of that court [of Star Chamber] do now cease." 
As early as the reign of Edward III. a hall in the palace 
Cells of Potato (Sota- 
num tnbtrosum) filled 
with starch-granules ; a, 
a, granules. (All greatly 
magnified.) 
ippear re 
ting in the Star Chamber, or " the Council in the Star 
Chamber," from which time it seems to have been regarded 
as the court of the Star Chamber. There is a difference of 
opinion whether the tribunal sitting under the act of 3 
Henry VII. should be deemed the same court or not. 
Starre-chamber, Camera stellata, is a Chamber at the one 
end of Westminster Hall, so called, as Sir Thomas Smith 
coniectureth, lib. 2. cap. 4, either because it is so full of 
windowes, or because at the first all the roofe thereof was 
decked with Images of guilded starres. The latter reason 
is the likelier, because Anno 26. H[enJ. 8. cap. I. it is writ- 
ten the sterred chamber. Now it hath the signe of a Starre 
ouer the doore, as you one way enter therein. 
Mimheu (1617). 
2. Any tribunal or committee which proceeds 
by secret, arbitrary, or unfair methods: also 
used attributively: as. star-chamber proceed- 
ings ; star-chamber methods. 
starch-cellulose (starch'sel"u-16s), n. See cel- 
lulose'*. 
starch-cornt (starch'kdrn), . Spelt. 
starched (starcht or star'ched), p. a. [< starch^ 
+ -ed?.~\ 1. Stiffened with starch. 2f. Stif- 
fened, as with fright ; stiff. 
Some with black terrors his faint conscience baited, 
That wide he star'd, and starched hair did stand. 
P. Fletcher, Purple Island, vii 
3. Stiff; precise; formal. 
Look with a good starched face, and ruffle your brow like 
anew boot, B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, i. 1 . 
Starchedly (star'ched-li), adv. Stiffly; as if 
starched. Stormonth. 
Starchedness (star'ched-nes), n. The state of 
being starched; stiffness in manners; formal- 
ity. L. Addison, West Barbary, p. 105. 
Starcher (star'cher), . [< starc/i 2 + -er 1 .] One 
who starches, or whose occupation it is to 
starch : as, a clear-sfarefter. Heywood, Fair 
Maid of the Exchange. 
starch-gum (starch'gum), n. Same as dextrine. 
starch-hyacinth (starch'hi'a-sinth), n. See 
hyacinth, 2. 
starchiness (star'chi-nes), . The quality of 
being starchy, or of abounding in starch. 
Starcnly (starch'li), adv. [< store* 1 + -ly'*.] 
In a starchy manner ; with stiffness of manner ; 
formally. 
I might . . . talk starchly, and affect ignorance of what 
you would be at. Swtft, To Rev. Dr. Tisdall, April 20, 1704. 
Starchness (starch'nes), n. Stiffness of man- 
ner; preciseness. Imp. Diet. 
starchroot (starch'rot), n. See starchwort. 
starch-star (starch'star), n. In Characeee, a 
bulblet produced by certain species of Chara for 
propagative purposes: it is an underground 
node. 
starch-sugar (starch'shug*'ar), . Same as dex- 
trose. 
Starchwomant (starch'wurD/an), n. A woman 
who sold starch for the stiffening of the great 
ruffs worn in the sixteenth century. The starch- 
woman was a favorite go-between in intrigues. 
See the quotation. 
The honest plain-dealing jewel her husband sent out 
a boy to call her (not bawd by her right name, but starch- 
woman) ; into the shop she came, making a low counter- 
feit curtsey, of whom the mistress demanded if the starch 
were pure gear, and would be stiff in her ruff. 
Middleton, Father Hubbard's Tales. 
stare 
starchwortt (starch'wert), . The wake-robin, 
Arum mnculatum, whose root yields a starch 
once used for fine laundry purposes, later pre- 
pared as a delicate food under the name of 
English or Portland arrowroot. This was chiefly 
produced in the Isle of Portland, where the plant 
is called starchroot. See cuts under Aracese 
and Arum. 
Starchy 1 (stiir'chi), . [< starch 1 + -#!.] Stiff; 
precise; formal in manner. 
Nothing like these starchy doctors for vanity ! . . . He 
cared much less for her portrait than his own. 
George Eliot, Middlemarch, xxii. 
Starchy 2 (star'chi), a. [< starch* + -j/ 1 .] Con- 
sisting of starch; resembling starch. 
star-clerkt (star'klerk), n. One learned in the 
stars; an astronomer. [Bare.] 
If, at the leastt Star-Clarks be credit worth. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 3. 
Star-cluster (star'klus"ter), . A compressed 
group of six or more fixed stars; but most of 
the collections so called contain a hundred stars 
or more. 
star-connert (star'kon"er), . [< star* + con- 
ner 1 .] A star-gazer. Gafcoigne, Fruites of Warre. 
Starcraft (star'kraft), n. Astrology. Tennyson, 
Lover's Tale, i. ; 0. Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wort- 
cunning, and Starcraft of Early England [title] . 
[Bare.] 
star-crosst (star'kr6s), a. Same as star-crossed. 
Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 4. 
Star-crossed (star'krdst), a. Born under a malig- 
nant star; ill-fated. Shak., R. and J., Prol., 1. 6. 
Star-diamond (star'di"a-mond), n. A diamond 
that exhibits asterism. " 
Star-drift (star'drift), n. A common proper mo- 
tion of a number of fixed stars in the same part 
of the heavens. See fixed star, under star'. 
star-dust (star'dust), n. Same as cosmic dust 
(which see, under cosmic). 
Mud gathers on the floor of these abysses [of the ocean] 
... so slowly that the very star-dust which falls from 
outer space forms an appreciable part of it. 
2. Geilcie, Geological Sketches, xiii. 
stare 1 (star), t>. ; pret. and pp. stared, ppr. star- 
ing. [< ME. staren, < AS. starian =. OHG. 
staren, MHG. staren, G. starren, stare, = Icel. 
stara, stare (cf. G. stieren = Icel. stira = Sw. 
stirra = Dan. stirre, stare); connected with 
starblind, and perhaps with D. staar = G. starr, 
fixed, rigid (cf. G. stier, storr, stiff, fixed) ; cf . 
Gr. <rrepe6f, fixed, solid, Skt. sthira, fixed, firm.] 
1. intrans. 1. To gaze steadily with the eyes 
wide open; fasten an earnest and continued 
look on some object; gaze, as in admiration, 
wonder, surprise, stupidity, horror, fright, im- 
pudence, etc. 
This monk bigan upon this wyf to stare. 
Chaucer, Shipman's Tale, 1. 124. 
Look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret. 
Shak., T. of the 8., Hi. 2. 230. 
To blink and stare, 
Like wild things of the wood about a fire. 
Lowell, Agasslz, ii. 1. 
2. To standout stiffly, as hair; be prominent; 
be stiff; stand on end; bristle. 
And her fail e locks up stared stiffe on end. 
Spenser, F. Q., III. xii. 36. 
The winter has commenced ; . . . even the coats of the 
hard-worked omnibus horses stare, as the jockeys say. 
The New Mirror, II. 255 (1843). 
3t. To shine; glitter; be brilliant. 
A [as?] stremande sternez quen strothe men slepe 
Staren in welkyn in wynter nyjt. 
Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), i. 115. 
Thei ben y-sewed with whijt silk, . . . 
Y-stongen with stiches that stareth as siluer. 
Piers Plowman's Creed (E. E. T. 8.), 1. 553. 
Her fyrie eyes with furious sparkes did stare. 
Spenser, F. Q., III. vii. 39. 
4. To be unduly conspicuous or prominent, as 
by excess of color or by ugliness. Compare 
staring, 3. 
The homeliness of the sentiment stares through the 
fantastic encumbrance of its flue language, like a clown 
in one of the new uniforms ! Sheridan, The Critic, L 1. 
= Syn. 1. Gaze, Gape, Stare, Gloat. Gaze is the only one 
of these words that may be used in an elevated sense. 
Gaze represents a fixed and prolonged look, with the mind 
absorbed in that which is looked at. To gape is in this 
connection to look with open month, and hence with the 
bumpkin's idle curiosity, listlessness, or ignorant wonder: 
one may gape at a single thing, or only gape about. Stare 
expresses the intent look of surprise, of mental weakness, 
or of insolence ; it implies fixedness, whether momentary 
or continued. Gloat has now almost lost the meaning of 
looking with the natural eye, and has gone over into the 
meaning of mental attention ; in either sense it means 
looking with ardor or even rapture, often the delight of 
possession, as when the miser gloats over his wealth. 
II. trans. To affect or influence in some spe- 
cified way by staring; look earnestly or fixedly 
