Clamp vs Couple - What's the difference?
clamp | couple | Related terms |
A brace, band, or clasp for strengthening or holding things together.
A mass of bricks heaped up to be burned; or of ore for roasting, or of coal coking.
A piece of wood (batten) across the grain of a board end to keep it flat, as in a breadboard.
A heavy footstep; a tramp.
(intransitive) To fasten in place or together with (or as if with) a clamp .
* 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21
To tread heavily or clumsily; to clump or clomp.
* Thackeray
To hold or grip tightly.
To modify a numeric value so it lies within a specific range.
(UK, obsolete, transitive) To cover (vegetables, etc.) with earth.
Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
* 1729 , (Jonathan Swift), (A Modest Proposal)
Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
(label) A small number.
* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
* 1891 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Red-Headed League)
* 1902 , ,
* , chapter=1
, title= *{{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)
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
(informal) A small number of.
To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).
(dated) To join in wedlock; to marry.
* (rfdate),
To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
* 1987 Alan Norman Bold & Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman
* 2001 John Fisher & Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete, p405
In intransitive terms the difference between clamp and couple
is that clamp is to tread heavily or clumsily; to clump or clomp while couple is to join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.In transitive terms the difference between clamp and couple
is that clamp is to modify a numeric value so it lies within a specific range while couple is to join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).As nouns the difference between clamp and couple
is that clamp is a brace, band, or clasp for strengthening or holding things together while couple is two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.As verbs the difference between clamp and couple
is that clamp is to fasten in place or together with (or as if with) a clamp while couple is to join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).As a determiner couple is
a small number of.clamp
English
Noun
(en noun)Derived terms
* clover clamp * nipple clampVerb
(en verb)- As we burst into the room, the Count turned his face, and the hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish passion. The great nostrils of the white aquiline nose opened wide and quivered at the edge, and the white sharp teeth, behind the full lips of the blood dripping mouth, clamped together like those of a wild beast.
- The policeman with clamping feet.
Derived terms
* clamp downSee also
* clasp * vise, vicecouple
English
Noun
(en noun)- I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders;
- A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle
- ‘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.’
Across Coveted Lands:
- When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore
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.}}
- It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples ; they should be of the same size and humour.
- 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, handfulDerived terms
* bridal couple * coupla * couplezilla * couple-close * galvanic couple * voltaic coupleDeterminer
(head)Verb
(coupl)- Now the conductor will couple the train cars.
- I've coupled our system to theirs.
- A parson who couples all our beggars.
- On their wedding night they coupled nine times.
- 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 [...]