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Broach vs Explain - What's the difference?

broach | explain |

As verbs the difference between broach and explain

is that broach is to broach while explain is to make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.

broach

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) broche, from

Noun

(es)
  • A series of chisel points mounted on one piece of steel. (rfex)
  • (masonry) A broad chisel for stone-cutting.
  • A spit for cooking food.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • He turned a broach that had worn a crown.
  • An awl; a bodkin; also, a wooden rod or pin, sharpened at each end, used by thatchers.
  • (Forby)
  • (architecture, UK, dialect) A spire rising from a tower.
  • A spit-like start on the head of a young stag.
  • The stick from which candle wicks are suspended for dipping.
  • (Knight)
  • The pin in a lock which enters the barrel of the key.
  • Verb

    (es)
  • To make a hole in, especially a cask of liquor, and put in a tap in order to draw the liquid.
  • To open, to make an opening into; to pierce.
  • French knights at Agincourt were unable to broach the English line.
  • (senseid) (figuratively) To begin discussion about (something).
  • I broached the subject of contraceptives carefully when the teenager mentioned his promiscuity.
  • * 1913 ,
  • Yet he was much too much scared of broaching any man, let alone one in a peaked cap, to dare to ask.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VI
  • I have tried on several occasions to broach the subject of my love to Lys; but she will not listen.

    Etymology 2

    (en)

    Verb

    (es)
  • To be turned sideways to oncoming waves, especially large or breaking waves.
  • The small boat broached and nearly sank, because of the large waves.
  • To cause to turn sideways to oncoming waves, especially large or breaking waves.
  • To be overcome or submerged by a wave or surge of water.
  • Each time we came around into the wind, the sea broached our bow.

    explain

    English

    (Explanation)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
  • *
  • The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Pixels or Perish , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}
  • To give a valid excuse for some past behavior.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
  • (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
  • (obsolete) To unfold or make visible.
  • * (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)
  • The horse-chestnut isready to explain its leaf.

    Synonyms

    * (give a sufficiently detailed report) expound, elaborate