Decide vs Apply - What's the difference?
decide | apply |
To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.
* Shakespeare
To make a judgment, especially after deliberation.
* Bible, 1 Kings xx. 40
To cause someone to come to a decision.
* 1920 , , "The Adventure of the Three Gables" (Norton edition, 2005, p. 1537),
(obsolete) To cut off; to separate.
* Fuller
To lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another);—with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body.
* {{quote-book
, author=
, title=Translation of Virgil's Aeneid
, passage=He said, and to the sword his throat applied .
, year=1697}}
To put to use; to use or employ for a particular purpose, or in a particular case; to appropriate; to devote; as, to apply money to the payment of a debt.
To make use of, declare, or pronounce, as suitable, fitting, or relative; as, to apply the testimony to the case; to apply an epithet to a person.
* (rfdate) Milton,
To fix closely; to engage and employ diligently, or with attention; to attach; to incline.
* 1611 , '', ''Proverbs 23:12,
To betake; to address; to refer; generally used reflexively.
* Alexander Pope
* (rfdate) Johnson
To submit oneself as a candidate (with the adposition "to" designating the recipient of the submission, and the adposition "for" designating the position).
To pertain or be relevant to a specified individual or group.
(obsolete) To busy; to keep at work; to ply.
* Sir Philip Sidney
(obsolete) To visit.
* Chapman
As verbs the difference between decide and apply
is that decide is while apply is to lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another);—with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body.As an adjective apply is
.decide
English
Verb
(decid)- The election will be decided on foreign policies.
- We must decide our next move.
- Her last-minute goal decided the game.
- The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; / Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then.
- You must decide between good and evil.
- I have decided that it is healthier to walk to work.
- So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it.
- It decides me to look into the matter, for if it is worth anyone's while to take so much trouble, there must be something in it.
- Our seat denies us traffic here; / The sea, too near, decides us from the rest.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* make up one's mind * choose * determine * pickapply
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) applier, ((etyl) appliquer), from (etyl) . See applicant, ply.Verb
(en-verb)- Yet God at last To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied .
- Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
- sacred vows applied to grisly Pluto
- I applied myself to him for help.
- I recently applied to the tavern for a job as a bartender.
- Most of the colleges she applied to were ones she thought she had a good chance of getting into.
- Many of them don't know it, but almost a third of the inmates are eligible to apply for parole or work-release programs.
- That rule only applies to foreigners.
- She was skillful in applying his humours.
- His armour was so clear, / And he applied each place so fast, that like a lightning thrown / Out of the shield of Jupiter, in every eye he shone.