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Brew vs Stew - What's the difference?

brew | stew |

In transitive terms the difference between brew and stew

is that brew is to foment or prepare, as by brewing; to contrive; to plot; to hatch while stew is to brew (tea) for too long, so that the flavour becomes too strong.

As a proper noun Stew is

a diminutive of the male given name Stewart.

brew

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To prepare (usually a beverage) by steeping and mingling; to concoct.
  • *
    • Go, brew me a pottle of sack finely.
  • To foment or prepare, as by brewing; to contrive; to plot; to hatch.
  • *
    • Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!
  • To attend to the business, or go through the processes, of brewing or making beer.
  • *
    • I wash, wring, brew , bake, scour.
  • To be in a state of preparation; to be mixing, forming, or gathering.
  • *
    • There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=January 11 , author=Jonathan Stevenson , title=West Ham 2 - 1 Birmingham , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Grant may have considered that only a performance of the very highest quality could keep him in a job - and the way his players started the game gave the 55-year-old shelter from the storm that was brewing .}}
  • (obsolete) To boil or seethe; to cook.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The mixture formed by brewing; that which is brewed; a brewage.
  • (slang) A beer.
  • (British, NZ) A cup of tea.
  • (British, NZ) The act of making a cup of tea.
  • (British, informal) A hill.

    • Derived terms

    * brewage * brewer * brewhouse ----

    stew

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) estuve (modern French .

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (label) A cooking-dish used for boiling; a cauldron.
  • *:
  • *:And when he came to the chamber there as this lady was the dores of yron vnlocked and vnbolted / And so syr launcelot wente in to the chambre that was as hote as ony stewe / And there syr launcelot toke the fayrest lady by the hand / that euer he sawe / and she was naked as a nedel
  • (label) A brothel.
  • *1681 , (John Dryden), (Absalom and Achitophel)
  • *:And rak'd, for converts, even the court and stews .
  • *1835 , (Thomas Babington Macaulay), Sir James Mackintosh
  • *:Because he was chaste, the precinct of his temple is filled with licensed stews .
  • *1977 , Gãmini Salgãdo, The Elizabethan Underworld , Folio Society, 2006, p.37:
  • *:Although whores were permitted to sit at the door of the stew , they could not solicit in any way nor ‘chide or throw stones’ at passers-by.
  • (label) A prostitute.
  • :
  • *1870 , Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood , Wordsworth Classics, 1998, p.367:
  • *:I noticed then that there was nothing to drink on the table but brandy, and nothing to eat but salted herrings, and a hot, sickly, highly peppered stew .
  • (label) A pool in which fish are kept in preparation for eating.
  • An artificial bed of oysters.
  • (label) A state of agitated excitement, worry, and/or confusion.
  • :
    • Synonyms
    * (food) casserole, (British) hotpot
    Coordinate terms
    * casserole * cassoulet * goulash * ragout
    Derived terms
    * in a stew * stewpot

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (transitive, or, intransitive, or, ergative) To cook (food) by slowly boiling or simmering.
    • I'm going to stew some meat for the casserole.
    The meat is stewing nicely.
  • To brew (tea) for too long, so that the flavour becomes too strong.
  • (figuratively) To suffer under uncomfortably hot conditions.
  • (figuratively) To be in a state of elevated anxiety or anger.
    • Synonyms
    * (suffer under hot conditions) bake, boil, sweat, swelter * (be in a state of elevated anxiety) brood, fret, sweat, worry

    Etymology 2

    Abbreviation of steward or stewardess.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A steward or stewardess on an airplane.
  • * 1975 November 3, , volume 8, number 44, page 8 [http://google.com/books?id=OekCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=stew]:
    • And then, working as a stew for American Airlines, Mo met another older man.
  • * 1991 , , 1992 edition, ISBN 0425184226, page 480 [http://google.com/books?id=kP84eUjxv-MC&pg=PA480&dq=stew]:
    • "We want to know what he's going to be saying on his airplane."
    "I don't have the legs to dress up as a stew , doc. Besides, I never learned to do the tea ceremony, either."
  • * 1992 January, Skip Hollandsworth, "Doing the Hustle", , ISSN 0148-7736, volume 20, issue 1, page 52 [http://google.com/books?id=dysEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA52&dq=stew]:
    • Dallas was also becoming known as a "stew zoo" because so many flight attendants were relocating there to work for Southwest, Braniff, and American Airlines.

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