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Ephemeral vs Lick - What's the difference?

ephemeral | lick |

As nouns the difference between ephemeral and lick

is that ephemeral is something which lasts for a short period of time while lick is the act of licking; a stroke of the tongue.

As an adjective ephemeral

is lasting for a short period of time.

As a verb lick is

to stroke with the tongue.

ephemeral

Noun

(en noun)
  • Something which lasts for a short period of time.
  • Synonyms

    * (short-lived) ephemeron

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Lasting for a short period of time.
  • * Vicesimus Knox
  • Esteem, lasting esteem, the esteem of good men, like himself, will be his reward, when the gale of ephemeral popularity shall have gradually subsided.
  • * Sir J. Stephen
  • sentences not of ephemeral , but of eternal, efficacy
  • * '>citation
  • It was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral , because human, sorrows.
  • (biology) Existing for only one day, as with some flowers, insects, and diseases.
  • (geology, of a body of water) Usually dry, but filling with water for brief periods during and after precipitation.
  • * 1986 , W.H. Raymond, "Clinoptilolite Deposit in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, U.S.A.", in Y?ichi Murakami et al. (editors), New Developments in Zeolite Science and Technology (conference proceedings), Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-444-98981-9, page 80:
  • The graben constitutes a depositional basin and a topographic low, underlain by Cretaceous shales, in which volcanic debris accumulated in ephemeral lakes and streams in Oligocene and early Miocene time.

    Synonyms

    * (lasting for a short period of time) temporary, transitory, fleeting, evanescent, momentary, short-lived, short, volatile * See also

    Antonyms

    * (lasting for a long period of time) permanent, eternal, everlasting, timeless.

    Derived terms

    * ephemerally

    lick

    English

    (licking)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of licking; a stroke of the tongue.
  • The cat gave its fur a lick .
  • The amount of some substance obtainable with a single lick.
  • Give me a lick of ice cream.
  • A quick and careless application of anything, as if by a stroke of the tongue, or of something which acts like a tongue.
  • a lick''' of paint; to put on colours with a '''lick of the brush
  • * Gray
  • a lick of court white wash
  • A place where animals lick minerals from the ground.
  • The birds gathered at the clay lick .
  • A small watercourse or ephemeral stream. It ranks between a rill and a stream.
  • We used to play in the lick .
  • (colloquial) A stroke or blow.
  • Hit that wedge a good lick with the sledgehammer.
  • (colloquial) A bit.
  • You don't have a lick of sense.
    I didn't do a lick of work today.
  • (music) A short motif.
  • There are some really good blues licks in this solo.
  • speed. In this sense it is always qualified by good', or ' fair or a similar adjective.
  • The bus was travelling at a good lick when it swerved and left the road.

    Synonyms

    * (bit) see also .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To stroke with the tongue.
  • The cat licked its fur.
  • (colloquial) To defeat decisively, particularly in a fight.
  • My dad can lick your dad.
  • (colloquial) To overcome.
  • I think I can lick this.
  • (vulgar, slang) To perform cunnilingus.
  • (colloquial) To do anything partially.
  • To lap
  • * 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter XI
  • Now, in this decadent age the art of fire-making had been altogether forgotten on the earth. The red tongues that went licking up my heap of wood were an altogether new and strange thing to Weena.
  • To lap; to take in with the tongue.
  • A cat licks milk.
    (Shakespeare)

    Derived terms

    * ass-licker * cow lick * good lick * lick one's chops * lick one's wounds * lick out * lickspittle * lick up * licked * lickety split * outlick