Approve vs Decide - What's the difference?
approve | decide |
To sanction officially; to ratify; to confirm.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To regard as good; to commend; to be pleased with; to think well of.
To make proof of; to demonstrate; to prove or show practically.
* (Ralph Waldo Emerson),
* (Thomas Babington Macaulay),
* (George Gordon Byron),
* (Francis Parkman),
To consider or show to be worthy of approbation or acceptance.
* (Henry Rogers),
* (Thomas Babington Macaulay),
* (William Black),
(English Law) To make profit of; to convert to one's own profit;—said especially of waste or common land appropriated by the lord of the manor.
To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.
* Shakespeare
To make a judgment, especially after deliberation.
* Bible, 1 Kings xx. 40
To cause someone to come to a decision.
* 1920 , , "The Adventure of the Three Gables" (Norton edition, 2005, p. 1537),
(obsolete) To cut off; to separate.
* Fuller
In transitive terms the difference between approve and decide
is that approve is to make proof of; to demonstrate; to prove or show practically while decide is to cause someone to come to a decision.In intransitive terms the difference between approve and decide
is that approve is to consider or show to be worthy of approbation or acceptance while decide is to make a judgment, especially after deliberation.approve
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . Compare prove, approbate.Verb
(approv)Can China clean up fast enough?, passage=It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.}}
- Opportunities to approve worth.
- He had approved himself a great warrior.
- 'T is an old lesson; Time approves it true.
- His accountapproves him a man of thought.
- The first care and concern must be to approve himself to God.
- They had not approved of the deposition of James.
- They approved of the political institutions.
- Note: This word, when it signifies to be pleased with, to think favorably (of''), is often followed by ''of .
Derived terms
() * approval * approvable * I approve this message * approvably * approbationEtymology 2
(etyl) aprouer; . Compare with improve.Verb
(approv)References
*decide
English
Verb
(decid)- The election will be decided on foreign policies.
- We must decide our next move.
- Her last-minute goal decided the game.
- The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; / Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then.
- You must decide between good and evil.
- I have decided that it is healthier to walk to work.
- So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it.
- It decides me to look into the matter, for if it is worth anyone's while to take so much trouble, there must be something in it.
- Our seat denies us traffic here; / The sea, too near, decides us from the rest.