Demur vs Demean - What's the difference?
demur | demean |
(obsolete) To linger; to stay; to tarry
* Nicols
To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings or judgment in view of a doubt or difficulty; to hesitate; to put off the determination or conclusion of an affair.
* Hayward
To scruple or object; to take exception; to oppose; to balk
(legal) To interpose a demurrer.
(obsolete) To suspend judgment concerning; to doubt of or hesitate about
(obsolete) To cause delay to; to put off
* Quarles
Stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple.
* 2004 , (Richard Fortey), The Earth , Folio Society 2011, p. 132:
----
To debase; to lower; to degrade.
* Thackeray
To humble, humble oneself; to humiliate.
To mortify.
To manage; to conduct; to treat.
* Milton
To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun.
* Shakespeare
* Clarendon
(archaic) Management; treatment.
* Spenser
(archaic) Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor.
* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , V.5:
*:‘When thou hast all this doen, then bring me newes / Of his demeane […].’
* West
As verbs the difference between demur and demean
is that demur is to linger; to stay; to tarry while demean is to debase; to lower; to degrade.As nouns the difference between demur and demean
is that demur is stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple while demean is management; treatment.demur
English
Verb
(demurr)- Yet durst not demur nor abide upon the camp.
- Upon this rub, the English embassadors thought fit to demur .
- I demur to that statement.
- The personnel demurred at the management's new scheme.
- The latter I demur , for in their looks / Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears. -
- He demands a fee, / And then demurs me with a vain delay.
Noun
(en noun)- All my demurs but double his attacks; At last he whispers, ``Do; and we go snacks.'' -
- Most geologists today would accept such evidence without demur , but it was still ‘fringe’ science when du Toit was publishing.
Derived terms
* demurenessReferences
demean
English
Etymology 1
(1595) From . Compare English (m).Verb
(en verb)- Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter.
Synonyms
* debase * lower * degradeEtymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- [Our] clergy have with violence demeaned the matter.
- They have demeaned themselves / Like men born to renown by life or death.
- They answered that they should demean themselves according to their instructions.
Noun
- vile demean and usage bad
- with grave demean and solemn vanity