What does "reservation" mean?
Reservation: Something withheld, either not expressed or disclosed, or not given up or brought forward. Dryden.
Additional senses
- 2.A tract of the public land reserved for some special use, as for schools, for the use of Indians, etc. [U.S.]
- 3.The state of being reserved, or kept in store. Shak.
- 4.(Law) (a) A clause in an instrument by which some new thing is reserved out of the thing granted, and not in esse before. (b) A proviso. Kent. Note: This term is often used in the same sense with exception, the technical distinction being disregarded.
- 5.(Eccl.) (a) The portion of the sacramental elements reserved for purposes of devotion and for the communion of the absent and sick. (b) A term of canon law, which signifies that the pope reserves to himself appointment to certain benefices. Mental reservation, the withholding, or failing to disclose, something that affects a statement, promise, etc., and which, if disclosed, would materially change its import.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17 · Modified: 2026-07-17