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Demur vs Demean - What's the difference?

demur | demean |

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)
  • (obsolete) To linger; to stay; to tarry
  • * Nicols
    • Yet durst not demur nor abide upon the camp.
  • 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
    • Upon this rub, the English embassadors thought fit to demur .
  • To scruple or object; to take exception; to oppose; to balk
    • I demur to that statement.
    The personnel demurred at the management's new scheme.
  • (legal) To interpose a demurrer.
  • (obsolete) To suspend judgment concerning; to doubt of or hesitate about
    • The latter I demur , for in their looks / Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears. -
  • (obsolete) To cause delay to; to put off
  • * Quarles
    • He demands a fee, / And then demurs me with a vain delay.

    Related terms

    * demurrage * demurrer

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple.
    • All my demurs but double his attacks; At last he whispers, ``Do; and we go snacks.'' -
  • * 2004 , (Richard Fortey), The Earth , Folio Society 2011, p. 132:
    • Most geologists today would accept such evidence without demur , but it was still ‘fringe’ science when du Toit was publishing.

    Derived terms

    * demureness

    References

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    demean

    English

    Etymology 1

    (1595) From . Compare English (m).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To debase; to lower; to degrade.
  • * Thackeray
    • Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter.
  • To humble, humble oneself; to humiliate.
  • To mortify.
    • Synonyms
    * debase * lower * degrade

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To manage; to conduct; to treat.
  • * Milton
    • [Our] clergy have with violence demeaned the matter.
  • To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun.
  • * Shakespeare
    • They have demeaned themselves / Like men born to renown by life or death.
  • * Clarendon
    • They answered that they should demean themselves according to their instructions.

    Noun

  • (archaic) Management; treatment.
  • * Spenser
    • vile demean and usage bad
  • (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
    • with grave demean and solemn vanity

    Related terms

    * demeanor

    Etymology 3

    Var. of demesne.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • demesne.
  • resources; means.

    • Anagrams

    * * *