What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Couple vs Yoke - What's the difference?

couple | yoke | Related terms |

Couple is a related term of yoke.


As verbs the difference between couple and yoke

is that couple is while yoke is to link or to join.

As a noun yoke is

a bar or frame of wood by which two oxen are joined at the heads or necks for working together.

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

    yoke

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A bar or frame of wood by which two oxen are joined at the heads or necks for working together.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • A yearling bullock to thy name shall smoke, / Untamed, unconscious of the galling yoke .
  • A pair (of animals, especially oxen).
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Luke XIV:
  • And another sayd: I have bought fyve yooke of oxen, and I must goo to prove them, I praye the have me excused.
  • A frame made to fit the neck and shoulders of a person, used for carrying a pair of buckets, etc., one at each end of the frame.
  • A frame worn on the neck of an animal, such as a cow, pig, or goose, to prevent passage through a fence.
  • (figuratively) A burden; something which represses or restrains a person.
  • A frame or convex piece by which a bell is hung for ringing it.
  • The part of a shirt that stretches over the shoulders, usually made out of a doubled piece of fabric. Or, a pair of fabric panels on trousers (especially jeans) or a skirt, across the back of the garment below the waistband.
  • * 1913 ,
  • [...] this city child was dressed in what was then called the "Kate Greenaway" manner, and her red cashmere frock, gathered full from the yoke , came almost to the floor.
  • (bodybuilding) Well-developed muscles of the neck and shoulders.
  • * 2010 , Jim Wendler, "Build an NFL Neck", Men's Fitness (April), page 73.
  • Nothing says you're a dedicated lifter and true athlete more than a massive yoke —that is, the muscles of the neck, traps, and rear delts.
  • (aviation) The column-mounted of an aircraft.
  • (electronics) The electro-magnetic coil that deflects the electron beam in a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube).
  • (nautical) A fitting placed across the head of the rudder with a line attached at each end by which a boat may be steered. In modern use it is primarily found in sailing canoes and kayaks.
  • (agriculture, dated, uncommon) An alternative name for a cowpoke.
  • (glassblowing) A Y-shaped stand used to support a blowpipe or punty while reheating in the glory hole.
  • (engineering) A bent crosspiece connecting two other parts.
  • A tie securing two timbers together, not used for part of a regular truss, but serving a temporary purpose, as to provide against unusual strain.
  • (dressmaking) A band shaped to fit the shoulders or the hips, and joined to the upper full edge of the waist or the skirt.
  • The amount of land ploughed in a day by a pair of oxen.
  • (Gardner)
  • A portion of the working day.
  • to work two yokes , i.e. to work both morning and afternoon
    (Halliwell)
  • (informal, Ireland) A miscellaneous object; a gadget.
  • Synonyms

    * (aviation) control wheel

    Derived terms

    * pass under the yoke * under the yoke

    Verb

    (yok)
  • To link or to join.
  • *
  • Muriel and Benjamin yoked themselves into an old governess-cart and did their share.
  • To unite, to connect.
  • * Bible, 2 Corinthians vi. 14
  • Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers.
  • To enslave; to bring into bondage; to restrain; to confine.
  • * Milton
  • Then were they yoked with garrisons.
  • * Hudibras
  • The words and promises that yoke / The conqueror are quickly broke.

    Derived terms

    * yoke together