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Couple vs Plenty - What's the difference?

couple | plenty |

In obsolete terms the difference between couple and plenty

is that couple is that which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler while plenty is plentiful.

As nouns the difference between couple and plenty

is that couple is two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship while plenty is a more than adequate amount.

As determiners the difference between couple and plenty

is that couple is a small number of while plenty is much, enough.

As a verb couple

is to join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).

As a pronoun plenty is

more than enough.

As an adverb plenty is

more than sufficiently.

As an adjective plenty is

plentiful.

As a proper noun Plenty is

a village in Saskatchewan, Canada.

couple

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
  • * 1729 , (Jonathan Swift), (A Modest Proposal)
    • I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders;
  • Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
  • * 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
  • (label) A small number.
  • * 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
    • A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle
  • * 1891 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Red-Headed League)
    • ‘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.’
  • * 1902 , , Across Coveted Lands :
    • When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore
  • * , chapter=1
    • , title= 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.}}
  • *{{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)
    • It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples ; they should be of the same size and humour.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • 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, handful

    Derived terms

    * bridal couple * coupla * couplezilla * couple-close * galvanic couple * voltaic couple

    Determiner

    (head)
  • (informal) A small number of.

    • Verb

    (coupl)
  • To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).
    • Now the conductor will couple the train cars.
    I've coupled our system to theirs.
  • (dated) To join in wedlock; to marry.
  • * (rfdate),
    • A parson who couples all our beggars.
  • To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
  • * 1987 Alan Norman Bold & Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman
    • On their wedding night they coupled nine times.
  • * 2001 John Fisher & Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete, p405
    • 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 * uncouple

    plenty

    English

    Noun

  • A more than adequate amount.
    • We are lucky to live in a land of peace and plenty .
  • * 1798 , (Thomas Malthus), (An Essay on the Principle of Population):
    • During this season of distress, the discouragements to marriage, and the difficulty of rearing a family are so great that population is at a stand. In the mean time the cheapness of labour, the plenty of labourers, and the necessity of an increased industry amongst them, encourage cultivators to employ more labour upon their land, to turn up fresh soil, and to manure and improve more completely what is already in tillage

    Usage notes

    While some dictionaries analyse this word as a noun, others analyse it as a pronoun, Macmillan] or as both a noun and a pronoun.[http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/plenty oxforddictionaries.comHarrap's essential English Dictionary'' (1996)''Heinemann English Dictionary (2001)

    Derived terms

    * horn of plenty * land of plenty * plenteous * plentiful

    Synonyms

    * abundance * profusion

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • More than enough.
    • I think six eggs should be plenty for this recipe.

    Usage notes

    See the notes about the noun.

    Adverb

    (-)
  • More than sufficiently.
    • This office is plenty big enough for our needs.
  • (label) , very.
    • She was plenty mad at him.
  • * 26 June 2014 , A.A Dowd, AV Club Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler spoof rom-com clichés in They Came Together [http://www.avclub.com/review/paul-rudd-and-amy-poehler-spoof-rom-com-cliches-th-206220]
    • Seeing clichés mimicked this skillfully is plenty hilarious.

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • (label) much, enough
    • There'll be plenty time later for that
  • (label) many
    • Get a manicure. Plenty men do it.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (label) plentiful
  • * 1597 , Shakespeare, Henry IV , Part I, Act I, Scene IV:
    • if reasons were as plenty as blackberries
  • * 1836 , The American Gardener's Magazine and Register , volume 2, page 279:
    • Radishes are very plenty . Of cabbages a few heads of this year's crop have come to hand this week, and sold readily at quotations; [...]

    Related terms

    * plenitude * plentitude

    Anagrams

    *

    References

    1000 English basic words