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Dash vs Scuttle - What's the difference?

dash | scuttle | Related terms |

In intransitive terms the difference between dash and scuttle

is that dash is to run quickly or for a short distance while scuttle is to move hastily, to scurry.

In transitive terms the difference between dash and scuttle

is that dash is to complete hastily, usually with down or off while scuttle is to deliberately sink one's ship or boat by any means, usually by order of the vessel's commander or owner.

As an interjection dash

is damn.

dash

English

Noun

(es)
  • (typography) Any of the following symbols: (''horizontal bar ).
  • sometimes dash'' is also used colloquially to refer to a ''hyphen'' or ''minus sign .
  • A short run.
  • A small quantity of a liquid substance; less than 1/8 of a teaspoon.
  • Add a dash of vinegar
  • Vigor.
  • Aren't we full of dash this morning?
  • A dashboard.
  • * 1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 31:
  • The dash clock said 2:38 when.
  • One of the two symbols of Morse code.
  • (Nigeria) A bribe or gratuity.
  • * 1992 , George B. N. Ayittey, Africa betrayed (page 44)
  • The traditional practice of offering gifts or "dash " to chiefs has often been misinterpreted by scholars to provide a cultural explanation for the pervasive incidence of bribery and corruption in modern Africa.
  • * 2006 , Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo, The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950 (page 99)
  • Writing in 1924 on a similar situation in Ugep, the political officer, Mr. S. T. Harvey noted: "In the old days there was no specified dowry but merely dashes given to the father-in-law
  • * 2008 , Lizzie Williams, Nigeria: The Bradt Travel Guide (page 84)
  • The only other times you'll be asked for a dash is from beggars.
  • (obsolete, euphemistic) A stand-in for a censored word, like "Devil" or "damn". (Compare deuce.)
  • * 1824 , "Kiddywinkle History, No. II", Blackwood's Magazine (15, May 1824) p. 540
  • I'll be dashed if I gan another step for less 'an oaf.
  • * 1853 , (William Makepeace Thackery), (The Newcomes)'', Chapter VI, serialized in ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine , (VIII, no. 43, Dec 1853) p. 118
  • Sir Thomas looks as if to ask what the dash is that to you! but wanting still to go to India again, and knowing how strong the Newcomes are in Leadenhall Street, he thinks it necessary to be civil to the young cub, and swallows his pride once more into his waistband.
  • *:Comment : Some editions leave this passage out. Of those that include it, some change the 'you!' to 'you?'.
  • * 1884 , (Lord Robert Gower), My Reminiscences'', reprinted in "The Evening Lamp", ''The Christian Union , (29) 22, (May 29, 1884) p. 524
  • Who the dash' is this person whom none of us know? and what the ' dash does he do here?
  • * 1939 , , (Uncle Fred in the Springtime) Chapter 8
  • I'll be dashed if I squash in with any domestic staff.

    Hyponyms

    * See also

    Hypernyms

    * punctuation mark

    Derived terms

    * dashing * dash off * em dash, en dash

    See also

    (punctuation)

    Verb

    (es)
  • To run quickly or for a short distance.
  • He dashed across the field.
  • (informal) To leave or depart.
  • I have to dash now. See you soon.
  • To destroy by striking (against).
  • He dashed the bottle against the bar and turned about to fight.
  • * 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21
  • "`Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his brains out before your very eyes.'
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 4
  • Kala was the youngest mate of a male called Tublat, meaning broken nose, and the child she had seen dashed to death was her first; for she was but nine or ten years old.
  • To throw violently.
  • The man was dashed from the vehicle during the accident.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • If you dash a stone against a stone in the bottom of the water, it maketh a sound.
  • To sprinkle; to splatter.
  • * Thomson
  • On each hand the gushing waters play, / And down the rough cascade all dashing fall.
  • (of hopes or dreams) To ruin; to destroy.
  • Her hopes were dashed when she saw the damage.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=September 13 , author=Sam Lyon , title=Borussia Dortmund 1 - 1 Arsenal , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Arsenal's hopes of starting their Champions League campaign with an away win were dashed when substitute Ivan Perisic's superb late volley rescued a point for Borussia Dortmund.}}
  • To dishearten; to sadden.
  • Her thoughts were dashed to melancholy.
  • To complete hastily, usually with down'' or ''off .
  • He dashed''' down his eggs'', ''she '''dashed off her homework
  • To draw quickly; jot.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
  • "Scarborough," Mrs. Flanders wrote on the envelope, and dashed a bold line beneath; it was her native town; the hub of the universe.
  • To throw in or on in a rapid, careless manner; to mix, reduce, or adulterate, by throwing in something of an inferior quality; to overspread partially; to bespatter; to touch here and there.
  • to dash''' wine with water; to '''dash paint upon a picture
  • * Addison
  • I take care to dash the character with such particular circumstance as may prevent ill-natured applications.
  • * Tennyson
  • The very source and fount of day / Is dashed with wandering isles of night.

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (euphemistic) Damn!
  • See also

    * hyphen * minus sign

    Anagrams

    * * * ----

    scuttle

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A container like an open bucket (usually to hold and carry coal).
  • (construction) A hatch that provides access to the roof from the interior of a building.
  • A broad, shallow basket.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) ( > (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small hatch or opening in a boat. Also, small opening in a boat or ship for draining water from open deck.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1928, author=Lawrence R. Bourne
  • , title=Well Tackled! , chapter=7 citation , passage=The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he had to do it, and this was one of them.}}

    Verb

  • (nautical) To cut a hole or holes through the bottom, deck, or sides of (as of a ship), for any purpose.
  • To deliberately sink one's ship or boat by any means, usually by order of the vessel's commander or owner.
  • * 2002 , Richard Côté, Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy , Corinthian Books (2002), ISBN 9781929175314, page 325:
  • In this version, the Patriot was boarded by pirates (or the crew and passengers were overpowered by mutineers), who murdered everyone and then looted and scuttled the ship.
  • * 2003 , Richard Norton Smith, The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955 , Northwestern University Press (2003), ISBN 0810120399, page 238:
  • To lay the foundation for an all-weather dock at Shelter Bay, he filled an old barge with worn-out grindstones from the Thorold paper mill, then scuttled the vessel.
  • * 2007 , Michael Mueller, Canaris: The Life and Death of Hitler's Spymaster , Naval Institute Press (2007), ISBN 9781591141013, page 17:
  • He decided that before scuttling the ship to prevent her falling into enemy hands he had to get the dead and wounded ashore.
  • * 2009 , Nancy Toppino, Insiders' Guide to the Florida Keys and Key West , Insiders' Guide (2009), ISBN 9780762748716, page 227:
  • In recent years, steel-hull vessels up to 350 feet long have been scuttled in stable sandy-bottom areas, amassing new communities of fish and invertebrates and easing the stress and strain on the coral reef by creating new fishing and diving sites.
  • (transitive, by extension, in figurative use) Undermine or thwart oneself (sometimes intentionally), or denigrate or destroy one's position or property; compare scupper.
  • The candidate had scuttled his chances with his unhinged outburst.

    Etymology 3

    See scuddle.

    Verb

  • To move hastily, to scurry
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • With the first dawn of day, old Janet was scuttling about the house to wake the baron.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 3
  • there was a wisp or two of fine seaweed that had somehow got in, and a small crab was still alive and scuttled across the corner, yet the coffins were but little disturbed.
  • * 1913 ,
  • Morel scuttled out of the house before his wife came down.
    Usage notes
    The word "scuttle" carries a crab-like connotation, and is mainly used to describe panic-like movements of the legs, akin to crabs' leg movements.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A quick pace; a short run.
  • (Spectator)

    References