Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RE-SERVE, n. [rezerv'.]

1. That which is kept for other or future use; that which is retained from present use or disposal. The virgins, beside the oil in their lamps, carried likewise a reserve in some other vessel for a continual supply. – Tillotson.
2. Something in the mind withheld from disclosure. However any one may concur in the general scheme, it still with certain reserves and deviations. – Addison.
3. Exception; something withheld. Is knowledge so despis'd? / Or envy, or what reserve forbids to taste? – Milton.
4. Exception in favor. Each has some darling lust, which pleads for a reserve. – Rogers.
5. Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness; caution in personal behavior. Reserve may proceed from modesty, bashfulness, prudence, prudery or sullenness. My soul surpris'd, and from her sex disjoin'd, / Left all reserve, and all the sex behind. – Prior.
6. In law, reservation. In reserve, in store; in keeping for other or future use. He has large quantities of wheat in reserve. He has evidence or arguments in reserve. Body of reserve, in military affairs, the third or last line of an army drawn up for battle, reserved to sustain the other lines as occasion may require; a body of troops kept for an exigency.