Bestow vs Utilise - What's the difference?

As verbs the difference between bestow and utilise

is that bestow is to lay up in store; deposit for safe keeping; stow; place while utilise is to make useful, to find a practical use for.

bestow

English

Verb

(en verb)

To lay up in store; deposit for safe keeping; stow; place.

* 1611 , King James Bible, Luke 12:17:

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits.

* 1977 , ", HarperCollins, page 358:

Of the Three Rings that the Elves had preserved unsullied no open word was ever spoken among the Wise, and few even of the Eldar knew where they were bestowed .

To lodge, or find quarters for; provide with accommodation.

* 1838 , Ben Jonson, The works of Ben Jonson :

Well, my masters, I'll leave him with you; now I see him bestowed , I'll go look for my goods, and Numps.

To dispose of.

* 1810 , Robert Dodsley, Sir Walter Scott, The Ancient British drama :

Here are blank warrants of all dispositions; give me but the name and nature of your malefactor, and I'll bestow him according to his merits.

To give; confer; impart gratuitously; present something to someone as a gift or honour.

Medals were bestowed on the winning team.

* 2008 , , Userfriendly.org , “ The Large Hadron Collider Game”

CERN bestows slush fund on the LHC. Take all pennies from the CERN space.

* 1831 , (Mary Shelley),

Soft tears again bedewed my cheeks, and I even raised my humid eyes with thankfulness towards the blessed sun which bestowed such joy upon me.

To give in marriage.

To apply; make use of; use; employ.

* 1887 , John Marston, Arthur Henry Bullen, The Works of John Marston :

[...] I determine to bestow Some time in learning languages abroad; [...]

(obsolete) To behave or deport.

Derived terms

* * * * *

utilise

English

Alternative forms

* utilize

Verb

(utilis)

To make useful, to find a practical use for.

To make (l) of; to use.

To make best use of; to use to its fullest extent, potential, or ability.

To make do with; to use in manner different from that originally intendedT.A.R. Cheney, Getting the Words Right , Writer's Digest Books (1983).

Usage notes

Many style guides have advised against utilize and utilise'', arguing that the simpler verb use is always preferable (and analogously, that the noun ''use'' is preferable to ''utilization'' and ''utilisation'').Sir Ernest Gowers 1965 ''The Complete Plain Words'' Oxford: Oxford University PressEric Partridge 1973 ''Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English'' England: Penguin BooksJohn E. Kahn (ed) 1985 ''The Right Word at the Right Time'' London:Readers DigestPam Peters 1995 ''The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide'' Cambridge:Cambridge University Press When used simply as a synonym in ordinary writing (as in “please ''utilise the rear door when exiting the aircraft”) it can strike readers as pretentious, and so should be used sparingly.New Oxford American Dictionary 3rd edition (c) 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc. American novelist (David Foster Wallace) calls it a puff word.He continues: "Since it does nothing that good old use doesn't do, its extra letters and syllables don't make a writer seem smarter. I tell my students that using utilize makes you seem either pompous or so insecure that you'll use pointlessly big words in an attempt to look smart." Others argue that utilise has other senses, and is acceptable or even necessary (instead of (term)) in such senses. One such sense is “make best use of” (profitable, practical use, not just general use), as in “if we fail to utilise all resources, we will fail” – here the nuance is not simply “use”, but “make best use of”. Further, in American usage, (term) can imply use outside an object’s intended purpose.

Synonyms

* employ * exploit * use

Derived terms

* (l) * (l) * (l)

References

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