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Encounter vs Impinge - What's the difference?

encounter | impinge |

As verbs the difference between encounter and impinge

is that encounter is to meet (someone) or find (something) unexpectedly while impinge is to push (transitive: apply a force to (an object) so that it moves away), thrust, shove.

As a noun encounter

is an unplanned or unexpected meeting.

encounter

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete) * incounter (archaic) * incountre (obsolete)

Verb

(en verb)
  • To meet (someone) or find (something) unexpectedly.
  • To confront (someone or something) face to face.
  • (ambitransitive) To engage in conflict, as with an enemy.
  • Three armies encountered at Waterloo.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I will encounter with Andronicus.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An unplanned or unexpected meeting.
  • :
  • *
  • *:That was Selwyn's first encounter with the Ruthvens. A short time afterward at the opera Gerald dragged him into a parterre to say something amiable to one of the amiable débutante Craig girls—and Selwyn found himself again facing Alixe.
  • A hostile meeting; a confrontation or skirmish.
  • A sudden, often violent clash, as between combatants.
  • (label) A match between two opposing sides.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 29, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal , passage=Andre Santos equalised and the outstanding Theo Walcott put Arsenal ahead for the first time before Juan Mata's spectacular strike set up the finale for an enthralling encounter .}}

    Synonyms

    * (unplanned meeting ): * (hostile meeting ): clash, confrontation, brush, skirmish

    Derived terms

    * close encounter * encounter group

    impinge

    English

    Verb

    (imping)
  • To make a physical impact (on); to collide, to crash (upon).
  • * , vol.1, New York Review Books, 2001, p.287:
  • The ordinary rocks upon which such men do impinge and precipitate themselves, are cards, dice, hawks, and hounds […].
  • (figuratively) To interfere with; to encroach (on, upon).
  • *
  • To have an effect upon; to limit.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1913, author=
  • , chapter=4, title= Lord Stranleigh Abroad , passage=“I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity. …”}}

    Usage notes

    * The transitive use is less common, not included in many small dictionaries, and not favored by Garner's Modern American Usage (2009).

    Derived terms

    * impingement * impingent * impinger