animal starch
- noun
- /ˈænɪməl stɑːrk/
- Archaic
:
almidón animal
- The liver converts excess glucose into animal starch for later use.
Examples
-
During intense exercise, muscles draw on stored animal starch to produce energy.
-
Many athletes rely on animal starch for energy.
-
Some biology textbooks use the term animal starch as a synonym for glycogen.
-
The body stores animal starch in the liver.
-
During intense exercise, muscles draw on stored animal starch to produce energy.
-
The liver converts excess glucose into animal starch, which the body uses when energy is needed.
-
Many athletes rely on animal starch found in their muscles to fuel their performance.
Synonyms
5
6.8
A substance stored in the liver and muscles that the body breaks into sugar for energy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally interpretable as 'starch' associated with animals, so a learner who knows 'animal' and 'starch' would likely infer it denotes a carbohydrate found in animals. However, because 'starch' is prototypically plant-derived and the intended referent is the technical concept glycogen, the meaning is somewhat technical and potentially misleading, so it is not fully predictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Animal starch puts the word starch, the energy plants store, together with animal to name a similar store in animals, so imagine a potato of energy kept inside the body. So animal starch means a form of carbohydrate called glycogen that animals keep in the liver and muscles for later use as energy.