Verb

(en-verb)

To lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another);—with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body.

* {{quote-book

, author= , title=Translation of Virgil's Aeneid , passage=He said, and to the sword his throat applied . , year=1697}}

To put to use; to use or employ for a particular purpose, or in a particular case; to appropriate; to devote; as, to apply money to the payment of a debt.

To make use of, declare, or pronounce, as suitable, fitting, or relative; as, to apply the testimony to the case; to apply an epithet to a person.

* (rfdate) Milton,

Yet God at last To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied .

To fix closely; to engage and employ diligently, or with attention; to attach; to incline.

* 1611 , '', ''Proverbs 23:12,

Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

To betake; to address; to refer; generally used reflexively.

* Alexander Pope

sacred vows applied to grisly Pluto

* (rfdate) Johnson

I applied myself to him for help.

To submit oneself as a candidate (with the adposition "to" designating the recipient of the submission, and the adposition "for" designating the position).

I recently applied to the tavern for a job as a bartender.

Most of the colleges she applied to were ones she thought she had a good chance of getting into.

Many of them don't know it, but almost a third of the inmates are eligible to apply for parole or work-release programs.

To pertain or be relevant to a specified individual or group.

That rule only applies to foreigners.

(obsolete) To busy; to keep at work; to ply.

* Sir Philip Sidney

She was skillful in applying his humours.

(obsolete) To visit.

* Chapman

His armour was so clear, / And he applied each place so fast, that like a lightning thrown / Out of the shield of Jupiter, in every eye he shone.

(Webster 1913)

Verb

(en verb)

To point or direct a missile weapon, or a weapon which propels as missile, towards an object or spot with the intent of hitting it; as, to aim at a fox, or at a target.

To direct the intention or purpose; to attempt the accomplishment of a purpose; to try to gain; to endeavor;—followed by at, or by an infinitive; as, to aim at distinction; to aim to do well.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed .}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Snakes and ladders , passage=Risk is everywhere.

To direct or point, as a weapon, at a particular object; to direct, as a missile, an act, or a proceeding, at, to, or against an object; as, to aim a musket or an arrow, the fist or a blow (at something); to aim a satire or a reflection (at some person or vice).

(obsolete) To guess or conjecture.

(Shakespeare)