ایک فعل کے طور پر، "محفوظ رکھنا" کا مطلب عام طور پر کسی چیز کو اس کی اصل یا موجودہ حالت یا حالت میں برقرار رکھنا یا رکھنا ہے۔ اس میں کسی چیز کو نقصان، بوسیدگی یا نقصان سے بچانا شامل ہوسکتا ہے، ساتھ ہی اس بات کو یقینی بنانا کہ یہ قابل استعمال رہے یا مستقبل میں استعمال کے لیے دستیاب رہے۔ یہ زمین کے ایک محفوظ علاقے کا بھی حوالہ دے سکتا ہے جہاں جنگلی حیات یا قدرتی وسائل کو محفوظ یا منظم کیا جاتا ہے۔
عام طور پر، "محفوظ" کا استعمال کسی چیز کو برقرار رکھنے یا اس کی حفاظت کرنے کے عمل کو بیان کرنے کے ساتھ ساتھ اس عمل کے نتیجے (یعنی ایسی چیز جو محفوظ ہے) کو بیان کرنے کے لیے کیا جا سکتا ہے۔
1. Passepartout longed to ask him if the steamer had left for Yokohama but he dared not, for he wished to preserve the spark of hope, which still remained till the last moment.
2. He found himself fighting it to preserve his angst.
3. Only after her senses shut down to preserve her sanity, after she surrendered all likelihood of survival, did the Dvergar beat the last of the hope from Kallan.
4. If I preserve my purity in the society of the trees, why should he who would have me preserve it among men, seek to rob me of it?
5. of other secret matters which, to preserve the fealty I owe to my lady Dulcinea del Toboso, I shall pass over unnoticed and in silence!
6. But fate would not rid me of it, contenting itself with robbing me of my reason, perhaps to preserve me for the good fortune I have had in meeting you for if that which you have just told us be true, as I believe it to be, it may be that Heaven has yet in store for both of us a happier termination to our misfortunes than we look for because seeing that Luscinda cannot marry Don Fernando, being mine, as she has herself so openly declared, and that Don Fernando cannot marry her as he is yours, we may reasonably hope that Heaven will restore to us what is ours, as it is still in existence and not yet alienated or destroyed.
7. I recognise thee now and long have I mourned thee as dead, I, and my sister, thy mother, and all thy kin that are still alive, and whom God has been pleased to preserve that they may enjoy the happiness of seeing thee.
8. Of the first, those that had an humble origin and rose to the greatness they still preserve, the Ottoman house may serve as an example, which from an humble and lowly shepherd, its founder, has reached the height at which we now see it.
9. We have to slay pride in giants, envy by generosity and nobleness of heart, anger by calmness of demeanour and equanimity, gluttony and sloth by the spareness of our diet and the length of our vigils, lust and lewdness by the loyalty we preserve to those whom we have made the mistresses of our thoughts, indolence by traversing the world in all directions seeking opportunities of making ourselves, besides Christians, famous knights.