Compress vs Swab - What's the difference?
compress | swab |
To make smaller; to press or squeeze together, or to make something occupy a smaller space or volume.
* D. Webster
* Melmoth
To be pressed together or folded by compression into a more economic, easier format.
To condense into a more economic, easier format.
To abridge.
(technology) To make digital information smaller by encoding it using fewer bits.
(obsolete) To embrace sexually.
A multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice etc., used to apply to a patient's skin, cover the dressing of wounds, and placed with the aid of a bandage to apply pressure on an injury.
A machine for compressing
(medicine) a small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a stick or wire to aid access.
A sample taken with a swab (1).
A piece of material used for cleaning or sampling other items like musical instruments or guns.
A mop, especially on a ship.
(slang) A sailor; a swabby.
To use a swab on something, or clean something with a swab.
* , chapter=6
, title=
In transitive terms the difference between compress and swab
is that compress is to abridge while swab is to use a swab on something, or clean something with a swab.compress
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) compresser, from compressare 'to press hard/together', from compressus, the past participle of comprimere 'to compress', itself from com- 'together' + premere 'to press'Verb
- The force required to compress a spring varies linearly with the displacement.
- events of centuries compressed within the compass of a single life
- The same strength of expression, though more compressed , runs through his historical harangues.
- ''Our new model compresses easily, ideal for storage and travel
- This chart compresses the entire audit report into a few lines on a single diagram.
- If you try to compress the entire book into a three-sentence summary, you will lose a lot of information.
- (Alexander Pope)
Synonyms
* (press together ): compact, condense, pack, press, squash, squeeze * (be pressed together ): contract * (condense, abridge ): abridge, condense, shorten, truncateAntonyms
* (press together ): expand * (be pressed together ): decontract * (condense, abridge ): expand, lengthen * (make computing data smaller ): uncompressDerived terms
* compressed * compressed air * compressedly * compressibility * compressible * compression * compressive * compressive strength * compressor * decompressEtymology 2
From (etyl) compresse, from compresser 'to compress', from Late (etyl) compressare 'to press hard/together', from compressus, the past participle of comprimere 'to compress', itself from com- 'together' + premere 'to press'Noun
(es)- He held a cold compress over the sprain.
swab
English
Noun
(en noun)Synonyms
* (sailor) swabbyVerb
(swabb)Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.}}