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Backstop vs Assist - What's the difference?

backstop | assist |

As nouns the difference between backstop and assist

is that backstop is a device that prevents railroad cars from rolling off a railroad track while assist is a helpful action or an act of giving.

As verbs the difference between backstop and assist

is that backstop is to serve as backstop for while assist is to stand (at a place) or to (an opinion).

backstop

English

Noun

(wikipedia backstop) (en noun)
  • A device that prevents railroad cars from rolling off a railroad track.
  • (baseball) A wall behind home plate.
  • A catcher; the position of catcher

    • Verb

    (backstopp)
  • To serve as backstop for.
  • To bolster, support.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2013 , date=March 26 , author=Douglas Busvine and Darya Korsunskaya , title=Russia backstops Cyprus bailout despite anger , work=Reuters citation , page= , passage=Russia signalled on Monday it would backstop the European Union's bailout of Cyprus despite anger that the weekend rescue deal would impose heavy losses on uninsured depositors, many of them Russian.}}

    assist

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To stand (at a place) or to (an opinion).
    • A great part of the nobility assisted to his opinion.
  • (label) To attend
  • * 1967 , The Rev. Loren Gavitt (ed.), Saint Augustine's Prayer Book: A Book of Devotion for members of the Episcopal Church , revised edition, West Park, NY: Holy Cross Publications, p. 8:
    • To assist at Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation.
  • To help.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=April 15 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The referee seemed well placed to award the goal, but video evidence suggested the protests were well founded and the incident only strengthens the case of those lobbying for technology to assist officials.}}
  • (sports) To make a pass that leads directly towards scoring.

    • Derived terms

    * assister * assistive

    Related terms

    * assistant * assistance

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A helpful action or an act of giving.
    • The foundation gave a much needed assist to the shelter.
  • (sports) A statistic used in different sports to quantify the act of helping another player score points or goals; in baseball, an assist is defensive, allowing a teammate to record a putout.
    • He had two assists in the game.

    Derived terms

    * assistful * assistless

    Anagrams

    * ----