What is the difference between couple and pair?
couple | pair | Synonyms |
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
Two similar or identical things taken together; often followed by of.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)
, volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Two people in a relationship, partnership (especially sexual) or friendship.
Used with binary nouns (often in the plural to indicate multiple instances, since such nouns are plurale tantum)
A couple of working animals attached to work together, as by a yoke.
(cards) A poker hand that contains of two cards of identical rank, which cannot also count as a better hand.
(cricket) A score of zero runs (a duck) in both innings of a two-innings match
(baseball, informal) A double play, two outs recorded in one play
(baseball, informal) A doubleheader, two games played on the same day between the same teams
(slang) A pair of breasts
(Australia, politics) The exclusion of one member of a parliamentary party from a vote, if a member of the other party is absent for important personal reasons.
Two members of opposite parties or opinion, as in a parliamentary body, who mutually agree not to vote on a given question, or on issues of a party nature during a specified time.
(archaic) A number of things resembling one another, or belonging together; a set.
* Charles Dickens
* Beaumont and Fletcher
(kinematics) In a mechanism, two elements, or bodies, which are so applied to each other as to mutually constrain relative motion; named in accordance with the motion it permits, as in turning pair'', ''sliding pair'', ''twisting pair .
To group into sets of two.
* Alexander Pope
To bring two (animals, notably dogs) together for mating.
(politics, slang) To engage (oneself) with another of opposite opinions not to vote on a particular question or class of questions.
To suit; to fit, as a counterpart.
* Rowe
(computing) to form wireless connection between to devices
*{{quote-web
, date = yyyy-mm-dd
, author =Microsoft
, title = How-to: Keyboards
, site = http://www.microsoft.com
, url = http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/help/support/how-to/keyboard/bluetooth
, accessdate = 2015-02-21
}}
Pair is a synonym of couple.
In obsolete terms the difference between couple and pair
is that couple is that which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler while pair is to impair.In transitive terms the difference between couple and pair
is that couple is to join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another) while pair is to bring two (animals, notably dogs) together for mating.In intransitive terms the difference between couple and pair
is that couple is to join in sexual intercourse; to copulate while pair is to suit; to fit, as a counterpart.As a determiner couple
is a small number of.couple
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 [...]
Derived terms
* coupling (noun) * decouple, decoupled * uncouplepair
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) paire, from (etyl) .Noun
(en-noun)Obama's once hip brand is now tainted, passage=Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseen pair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much.}}
- There were two pairs on the final vote.
- plunging myself into poverty and shabbiness and love in one room up three pair of stairs
- Two crowns in my pocket, two pair of cards.
Synonyms
* two objects in a group: duo, dyad, couple, brace, twosome, duplet * (pair of breasts) See alsoDerived terms
* on a pair * grow a pair * in pairs * king pair * pair-horse * pair-oar(ed) * pair production * pair skating * royal pair * strap on a pairVerb
(en verb)- Glossy jet is paired with shining white.
- The wedding guests were paired boy/girl and groom's party/bride's party.
- My heart was made to fit and pair with thine.
- If your computer has a built-in, non-Microsoft transceiver, you can pair the device directly to the computer by using your computer’s Bluetooth software configuration program but without using the Microsoft Bluetooth transceiver.
