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Delve vs Study - What's the difference?

delve | study |

As verbs the difference between delve and study

is that delve is to dig the ground, especially with a shovel while study is (usually|academic) to revise materials already learned in order to make sure one does not forget them, usually in preparation for an examination.

As nouns the difference between delve and study

is that delve is a pit or den while study is (label) a state of mental perplexity or worried thought.

delve

English

Verb

  • To dig the ground, especially with a shovel.
  • * 1381 , John Ball
  • When Adam dalf and Eve span, / Who was then a gentleman?
  • * Dryden
  • Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor.
  • *
  • I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.
  • (ambitransitive) To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
  • * 1609-11 , Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain
  • I cannot delve him to the root.
  • * 1943 , Emile C. Tepperman, Calling Justice, Inc.!
  • She was intensely eager to delve into the mystery of Mr. Joplin and his brief case.
  • (ambitransitive) To dig, to excavate.
  • * ca. 1260 , Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend
  • And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory ...
  • * 1891 , , The White Company , chapter IV
  • Let him take off his plates and delve' himself, if ' delving must be done.

    Synonyms

    * (to dig the ground) dig * (to search thoroughly) investigate, research

    Derived terms

    * delver * indelve

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A pit or den.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.iii:
  • the wise Merlin whylome wont (they say) / To make his wonne, low vnderneath the ground, / In a deepe delue , farre from the vew of day [...].

    Anagrams

    * ----

    study

    English

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (usually, academic) To revise materials already learned in order to make sure one does not forget them, usually in preparation for an examination.
  • Students are expected to start studying for final exams in March.
    I need to study my biology notes.
  • (academic) To take a course or courses on a subject.
  • I study medicine at the university.
  • To acquire knowledge on a subject.
  • Biologists study living things.
  • To look at minutely.
  • He studied the map in preparation for the hike.
  • To fix the mind closely upon a subject; to dwell upon anything in thought; to muse; to ponder.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • I found a moral first, and then studied for a fable.
  • To endeavor diligently; to be zealous.
  • * Bible, 1 Thessalonians iv. 11
  • And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you

    Synonyms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Noun

    (studies)
  • (label) A state of mental perplexity or worried thought.
  • *:
  • *:wel said the kynge thow mayst take myn hors by force but and I my?te preue the whether thow were better on horsbak or I / wel said the knyght seke me here whan thow wolt and here nygh this wel thow shalt fynde me / and soo passyd on his weye / thenne the kyng sat in a study and bad his men fetche his hors as faste as euer they myghte
  • (label) Thought, as directed to a specific purpose; one's concern.
  • :
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Just men they seemed, and all their study bent / To worship God aright, and know his works.
  • Mental effort to acquire knowledge or learning.
  • :
  • *1661 , , The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond
  • *:During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study ; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant
  • *1699 , , Heads designed for an essay on conversations
  • *:Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=John T. Jost
  • , volume=100, issue=2, page=162, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)? , passage=He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.}}
  • The act of studying; examination.
  • :
  • Any particular branch of learning that is studied; any object of attentive consideration.
  • *(William Law) (1686-1761)
  • *:The Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament, are her daily study .
  • *(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • *:The proper study of mankind is man.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Katie L. Burke
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= In the News , passage=Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis:
  • (senseid)A room in a house intended for reading and writing; traditionally the private room of the male head of household.
  • :
  • *(Nathaniel Hawthorne) (1804-1864)
  • *:his cheery little study
  • An artwork made in order to practise or demonstrate a subject or technique.
  • :
  • (label) A piece for special practice; an .
  • Synonyms

    * (private male room) cabinet, closet (archaic)

    Coordinate terms

    * (private male room) boudoir (female equivalent)

    Hyponyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * brown study

    Statistics

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