What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Attach vs Couple - What's the difference?

attach | couple |

In transitive terms the difference between attach and couple

is that attach is to fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively) while couple is to join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).

In intransitive terms the difference between attach and couple

is that attach is to adhere; to be attached while couple is to join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.

In obsolete terms the difference between attach and couple

is that attach is to take, seize, or lay hold of while couple is that which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.

As verbs the difference between attach and couple

is that attach is to arrest, seize while couple is to join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).

As a noun couple is

two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.

As a determiner couple is

a small number of.

attach

English

Verb

  • (obsolete, legal) To arrest, seize.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , I.xii:
  • Eftsoones the Gard, which on his state did wait, / Attacht that faitor false, and bound him strait
  • * 1610 , , by (William Shakespeare), act 3 scene 2
  • Old lord, I cannot blame thee, / Who am myself attach'd with weariness / To th' dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest.
  • * Miss Yonge
  • The earl marshal attached Gloucester for high treason.
  • To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively).
  • An officer is attached to a certain regiment, company, or ship.
  • * Paley
  • The shoulder blade is attached only to the muscles.
  • * Macaulay
  • a huge stone to which the cable was attached
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , title= The Adaptable Gas Turbine , passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}
  • To adhere; to be attached.
  • * Brougham
  • The great interest which attaches to the mere knowledge of these facts cannot be doubted.
  • To come into legal operation in connection with anything; to vest.
  • Dower will attach .
    (Cooley)
  • To win the heart of; to connect by ties of love or self-interest; to attract; to fasten or bind by moral influence; with to .
  • attached''' to a friend; '''attaching others to us by wealth or flattery
  • * Jane Austen
  • incapable of attaching a sensible man
  • * Cowper
  • God by various ties attaches man to man.
  • To connect, in a figurative sense; to ascribe or attribute; to affix; with to .
  • to attach great importance to a particular circumstance
  • * Bayard Taylor
  • To this treasure a curse is attached .
  • (obsolete) To take, seize, or lay hold of.
  • (Shakespeare)

    Synonyms

    * (to fasten, to join to ) connect, annex, affix, unite

    Antonyms

    * (to fasten, to join to ) detach, unfasten, disengage, separate

    Derived terms

    () * attachable * attachment * attacher * get attached

    couple

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
  • * 1729 , (Jonathan Swift), (A Modest Proposal)
  • I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders;
  • Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
  • * 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
  • (label) A small number.
  • * 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
  • A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle
  • * 1891 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Red-Headed League)
  • ‘Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and it need not interfere very much with one’s other occupations.’
  • * 1902 , , Across Coveted Lands :
  • When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.}}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
  • , passage=And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.}}
  • One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.
  • (label) Two forces that are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction (and acting along parallel lines), thus creating the turning effect of a torque or moment.
  • (label) A couple-close.
  • (label) That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.
  • * (w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)
  • It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples ; they should be of the same size and humour.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • I'll go in couples with her.

    Usage notes

    * The traditional and still most broadly accepted usage of be used only as a noun and not as a determiner in formal writing. * "A couple of things" or people may be used to mean two of them, but it is also often used to mean any small number. *: The farm is a couple of miles off the main highway [=a few miles away]. *: We’re going out to a restaurant with a couple of friends [=two friends]. *: Wait a couple of minutes [=two minutes or more].

    Synonyms

    * (two partners) * (two things of the same kind) brace, pair * (a small number of) few, handful

    Derived terms

    * bridal couple * coupla * couplezilla * couple-close * galvanic couple * voltaic couple

    Determiner

    (head)
  • (informal) A small number of.
  • Verb

    (coupl)
  • To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).
  • Now the conductor will couple the train cars.
    I've coupled our system to theirs.
  • (dated) To join in wedlock; to marry.
  • * (rfdate),
  • A parson who couples all our beggars.
  • To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
  • * 1987 Alan Norman Bold & Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman
  • On their wedding night they coupled nine times.
  • * 2001 John Fisher & Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete, p405
  • She had the brilliant inventor and craftsman Daedalus construct her an artificial cow, in which she hid and induced the bull to couple with her [...]

    Derived terms

    * coupling (noun) * decouple, decoupled * uncouple