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Desert vs Fish - What's the difference?

desert | fish |

As a noun desert

is desert.

As an adjective desert

is deserted.

As a proper noun fish is

.

desert

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) from the (etyl) deserte, from

Noun

(en noun)
  • (senseid)(usually in plural) That which is deserved or merited; a just punishment or reward
  • * 1600 , (John Dowland), (Flow My Tears)
  • From the highest spire of contentment / my fortune is thrown; / and fear and grief and pain for my deserts / are my hopes, since hope is gone.
  • * 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21
  • "Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame to me to hear such a word. I would not hear it of you. And I shall not hear it from you. May God judge me by my deserts , and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!"
  • * A. Hamilton
  • His reputation falls far below his desert .
    Derived terms
    * just deserts

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.
  • * (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • Not thus the land appear'd in ages past, / A dreary desert and a gloomy waste.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
  • , chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.}}
  • (label) Any barren place or situation.
  • * 1858 , William Howitt, Land, Labour, and Gold; Or, Two Years in Victoria (page 54)
  • He declared that the country was an intellectual desert ; that he was famishing for spiritual aliment, and for discourse on matters beyond mere nuggets, prospectings, and the price of gold.
  • * 2006 , Philip N. Cooke, Creative Industries in Wales: Potential and Pitfalls (page 34)
  • So the question that is commonly asked is, why put a media incubator in a media desert and have it managed by a civil servant?

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Abandoned, deserted, or uninhabited; usually of a place.
  • They were marooned on a desert island in the Pacific.
  • * Bible, Luke ix. 10
  • He went aside privately into a desert place.
  • * Gray
  • Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
    Derived terms
    * desert boot * desert island * desert lynx * desert pavement * desert pea * desert rat * desert soil * desert varnish * desertification * food desert * preach in the desert

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To leave (anything that depends on one's presence to survive, exist, or succeed), especially when contrary to a promise or obligation; to abandon; to forsake.
  • You can't just drive off and desert me here, in the middle of nowhere.
  • To leave one's duty or post, especially to leave a military or naval unit without permission.
  • Anyone found deserting will be shot.
    Derived terms
    * deserter * desertion * desert or leave a sinking ship

    Anagrams

    * * English heteronyms ----

    fish

    English

    {{ picdic , image=Clupea harengus (Pieni).jpg , detail1= , detail2= }}

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (compare (etyl) (m), (etyl) (m).

    Noun

  • (countable) A cold-blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water, moving with the help of fins and breathing with gills.
  • Salmon is a fish .
    The Sun Mother created all the fishes of the world.
    The Sun Mother created all the fish of the world.
    We have many fish in our aquarium.
  • Any animal that lives exclusively in water.
  • * 1774 , Oliver Goldsmith, History of the Earth and Animated Nature , Volume IV:
  • The whale, the limpet, the tortoise and the oyster… as men have been willing to give them all the name of fishes , it is wisest for us to conform.
  • (uncountable) The flesh of the fish used as food.
  • *
  • The seafood pasta had lots of fish but not enough pasta.
  • (countable) A period of time spent fishing.
  • The fish at the lake didn't prove successful.
  • (countable) An instance of seeking something.
  • Merely two fishes for information told the whole story.
  • (uncountable) A card game in which the object is to obtain cards in pairs or sets of four (depending on the variation), by asking the other players for cards of a particular rank.
  • (uncountable, derogatory, slang) A woman.
  • (countable, slang) An easy victim for swindling.
  • (countable, poker slang) A bad poker player.
  • (countable, nautical) A makeshift overlapping longitudinal brace, originally shaped roughly like a fish, used to temporarily repair or extend a spar or mast of a ship.
  • (nautical) A purchase used to fish the anchor.
  • (countable, nautical) A torpedo.
  • * 1977 , (w, Richard O'Kane), Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang , Ballantine Books (2003), page 344:
  • The second and third fish went to the middle of her long superstructure and under her forward deck.
  • (zoology) A polyphyletic grouping of the following extant taxonomic groups:
  • # Class Myxini, the hagfish (no vertebra)
  • # Class Petromyzontida, the lampreys (no jaw)
  • # Within infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates (also including Tetrapoda)
  • ## Class Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays
  • ## Superclass Osteichthyes, bony fish.
  • Usage notes
    The collective plural of fish'' is always ''fish'' in the UK; in the US, ''fishes'' is encountered as well. When referring to two or more kinds of fish, the plural is ''fishes .
    Synonyms
    * (potential swindling victim) mark * (card game) Go Fish * (bad poker player) donkey, donk
    Derived terms
    {{der3, big fish in a small pond , bony fish , cold fish , dragonfish , drink like a fish , fish and chips , fish bowl/fishbowl , fishbrain , fishcake , fisher , fisherman , fish-eating grin , fish finger , fishful , fishgig , fish hook/fishhook , fishkill , fish ladder, fishway , fishless , fishlike , fishling , fishly , fishmeal , fishmonger , fishmoth , fish out of water , fish paste/fishpaste , fish pond/fishpond , fishpound , fishpox , fishroom , fish sauce , fishskin , fishskin disease , fish slice , fish supper , fishtail , fish tank/fishtank , fish tape , fishwife , fishwoman , fishworm , fishy , , goatfish , goldfish , have other fish to fry , like shooting fish in a barrel , jellyfish , lumpfish , overfish , queer fish , sailfish , shellfish , silverfish , starfish , neither fish nor fowl , surgeonfish , swim like a fish , there's plenty more fish in the sea , tuna fish}}
    Hyponyms
    * (aquatic cold-blooded vertabrae with gills) Cephalaspidomorphi, Chondrichthyes, Osteichthyes * (food) seafood
    See also
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (es)
  • To try to catch fish, whether successfully or not.
  • She went to the river to fish for trout.
  • To try to find something other than fish in (a body of water).
  • They fished the surrounding lakes for the dead body.
  • To attempt to find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects.
  • Why are you fishing through my things?
    He was fishing for the keys in his pocket.
  • To attempt to obtain information by talking to people.
  • The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information.
  • (cricket) Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.
  • To attempt to gain.
  • The actors loitered at the door, fishing for compliments.
  • (nautical) To repair a spar or mast using a brace often called a fish (see NOUN above).
  • * 1970 , James Henderson, The Frigates, an account of the lesser warships of the wars from 1793 to 1815 , Wordsworth (1998), page 143:
  • the crew were set to replacing and splicing the rigging and fishing the spars.
    Synonyms
    * (try to catch a fish) angle, drop in a line * (try to find something) rifle, rummage * angle
    Derived terms
    {{der3, fishable , fisher , fishery , fishline , fishnet/fishnet stockings , fish out}}

    Etymology 3

    .

    Noun

    (es)
  • (obsolete) A counter, used in various games.
  • (Webster 1913)