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Appropriate vs Comfortable - What's the difference?

appropriate | comfortable |

In obsolete terms the difference between appropriate and comfortable

is that appropriate is set apart for a particular use or person; reserved while comfortable is serviceable; helpful.

As a verb appropriate

is to make suitable; to suit.

As a noun comfortable is

a stuffed or quilted coverlet for a bed; a comforter.

appropriate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Set apart for a particular use or person; reserved.
  • Hence, belonging peculiarly; peculiar; suitable; fit; proper.
  • The headmaster wondered what an appropriate measure would be to make the pupil behave better.
  • * (Beilby Porteus)
  • in its strict and appropriate meaning
  • * (Edward Stillingfleet)
  • appropriate acts of divine worship
  • * (John Locke)
  • It is not at all times easy to find words appropriate to express our ideas.
  • Suitable to the social situation or to social respect or social discreetness; socially correct; socially discreet; well-mannered; proper.
  • I don't think it was appropriate for the cashier to tell me out loud in front of all those people at the check-out that my hair-piece looked like it was falling out of place.
    While it is not considered appropriate for a professor to date his student, there is no such concern once the semester has ended.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=November 10 , author=Jeremy Wilson , title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , work=Telegraph citation , page= , passage=With such focus from within the footballing community this week on Remembrance Sunday, there was something appropriate about Colchester being the venue for last night’s game. Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets. }}
    Synonyms
    * (suited for) apt, felicitous, fitting, suitable
    Antonyms
    * (all senses) inappropriate
    Derived terms
    * appropriateness

    Verb

    (appropriat)
  • (archaic) To make suitable; to suit.
  • (William Paley)
  • To take to oneself in exclusion of others; to claim or use as by an exclusive right.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.}}
  • To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, in exclusion of all others; with to'' or ''for .
  • * 2012 , The Washington Post, David Nakamura and Tom Hamburger, Put armed police in every school, NRA urges
  • “I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation,” LaPierre said.
  • (transitive, British, ecclesiastical, legal) To annex, as a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property.
  • (Blackstone)

    comfortable

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (lb) Comforting, providing comfort; consolatory.
  • *, II.2.6.ii:
  • *:he was going to make away himself; but meeting by chance his master Plotinus, who, perceiving by his distracted looks all was not well, urged him to confess his grief; which when he had heard, he used such comfortable speeches, that he redeemed him e faucibus Erebi .
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:a comfortable provision made for their subsistence
  • Amply sufficient, satisfactory.
  • :
  • :
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 18, author=Ben Dirs, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia , passage=When Hape sauntered over for a try after only three minutes it looked as if England were destined for a comfortable victory, but Georgia are made of sterner stuff, as they showed when running Scotland close in Invercargill last week.}}
  • Providing physical comfort and ease; agreeable.
  • :
  • *, chapter=8
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=We toted in the wood and got the fire going nice and comfortable . Lord James still set in one of the chairs and Applegate had cabbaged the other and was hugging the stove.}}
  • In a state of comfort and content.
  • :
  • *
  • *:A great bargain also had beenthe arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.
  • (lb) Strong; vigorous; valiant.
  • :(Wyclif)
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:Thy conceit is nearer death than thy powers. For my sake be comfortable ; hold death a while at the arm's end.
  • (lb) Serviceable; helpful.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.
  • Synonyms

    * comforting, comfy, cozy, eathful, restful, snug, cushy * (safely reliable) safe

    Antonyms

    * comfortless, uncomfortable

    Derived terms

    * comfortability * comfortable in one's own skin * comfortableness * comfortably * comfy

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (US) A stuffed or quilted coverlet for a bed; a comforter.
  • 1000 English basic words