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Entertain vs Regale - What's the difference?

entertain | regale |

As verbs the difference between entertain and regale

is that entertain is to amuse (someone); to engage the attention of agreeably while regale is to please or entertain (someone).

As nouns the difference between entertain and regale

is that entertain is (obsolete) ; pleasure while regale is a feast, meal.

entertain

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To amuse (someone); to engage the attention of agreeably.
    • to entertain friends with lively conversation
    The motivational speaker not only instructed but also entertained the audience.
  • (transitive, and, intransitive) To have someone over at one's home for a party or visit.
    • They enjoy entertaining a lot.
  • * Bible, Heb. xiii. 2
    • Be not forgetful to entertain strangers
  • To receive and take into consideration; to have a thought in mind.
    • The committee would like to entertain the idea of reducing the budget figures.
    to entertain a proposal
  • * De Quincey
    • I am not here going to entertain so large a theme as the philosophy of Locke.
  • * Hawthorne
    • A rumour gained ground, — and, however absurd, was entertained by some very sensible people.
  • (obsolete) To take or keep in one's service; to maintain; to support; to harbour; to keep.
  • * Shakespeare
    • You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred.
  • (obsolete) To meet or encounter, as an enemy.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) To lead on; to bring along; to introduce.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • to baptize all nations, and entertain them into the services and institutions of the holy Jesus

    Derived terms

    * entertainer * entertaining * entertainment

    Noun

    (-)
  • (obsolete) ; pleasure.
  • (obsolete) Reception of a guest; welcome.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.8:
    • But neede, that answers not to all requests, / Bad them not looke for better entertayne […].

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    regale

    English

    Etymology

    From (etyl) . Influenced in Old French by se rigoler "amuse oneself, rejoice," of unknown origin.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A feast, meal.

    • Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To please or entertain (someone).
  • * 26 June 2014 , A.A Dowd, AV Club Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler spoof rom-com clichés in They Came Together [http://www.avclub.com/review/paul-rudd-and-amy-poehler-spoof-rom-com-cliches-th-206220]
    • You’ve Got Mail is certainly the basic model for the plot, which finds corporate candy shill Joel (Rudd) and indie-sweetshop owner Molly (Poehler) regaling their dinner companions with the very long, digressive story of how they met and fell in love.
  • To provide hospitality for (someone); to supply with abundant food and drink.
  • (obsolete) To feast ((on), (with) something).
  • *1723 , Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury , V:
  • *:she hardly lets a Week pass without making the Lady Abbess and her Nuns a Visit, to regale with a Cup of burnt Brandy.
  • (figurative) To entertain with something that delights; to gratify; to refresh.
    • to regale the taste, the eye, or the ear