Express vs Let - What's the difference?
express | let |
(not comparable) Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.
(comparable) Specific or precise; directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied.
Truly depicted; exactly resembling.
* Milton
A mode of transportation, often a train, that travels quickly or directly.
* {{quote-book, year=1931, author=
, title=Death Walks in Eastrepps
, chapter=1/1 A service that allows mail or money to be sent rapidly from one destination to another.
An express rifle.
* H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
(obsolete) A clear image or representation; an expression; a plain declaration.
* Jeremy Taylor
A messenger sent on a special errand; a courier.
An express office.
* E. E. Hale
That which is sent by an express messenger or message.
(senseid) To convey or communicate; to make known or explicit.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith. As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.}}
To press, squeeze out (especially said of milk).
* 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick) ,
(biochemistry) To translate messenger RNA into protein.
(biochemistry) To transcribe deoxyribonucleic acid into messenger RNA.
(obsolete) The action of conveying some idea using words or actions; communication, expression.
* 1646 , Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica , V.20:
(obsolete) A specific statement or instruction.
* 1646 , (Sir Thomas Browne), Pseudodoxia Epidemica , II.5:
(label) To allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without (to)).
:
*(Bible), (w) viii. 28
*:Pharaoh said, I will let you go.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:If your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is
*1971 , , (The Tombs of Atuan)
*:He could not be let die of thirst there alone in the dark.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= To leave.
:
*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
*:Yet neither spins nor cards, ne cares nor frets, / But to her mother Nature all her care she lets .
(label) To allow the release of (a fluid).
:
(label) To allow possession of (a property etc.) in exchange for rent.
:
(label) To give, grant, or assign, as a work, privilege, or contract; often with out .
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(label)
:
:
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To cause (+ bare infinitive).
:
*:
*1818 , (John Keats), "To—":
*:Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb, / Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand.
(archaic) To hinder, prevent; to obstruct (someone or something).
* Bible, 2. Thessalonians ii. 7
* Tennyson
(obsolete) To prevent or obstruct (to) do something, or (that) something happen.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts VIII:
An obstacle or hindrance.
*, II.16:
*:Paulus Emilius'' going to the glorious expedition of ''Macedon'', advertised the people of ''Rome'' during his absence not to speake of his actions: ''For the licence of judgements is an especiall let in great affaires.
*Latimer
*:Consider whether your doings be to the let of your salvation or not.
(tennis) The hindrance caused by the net during serve, only if the ball falls legally.
As nouns the difference between express and let
is that express is a mode of transportation, often a train, that travels quickly or directly or express can be (obsolete) the action of conveying some idea using words or actions; communication, expression while let is milk or let can be letter.As an adjective express
is (not comparable) moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.As a verb express
is (senseid) to convey or communicate; to make known or explicit.express
English
(wikipedia express)Etymology 1
From (etyl) , from (etyl) expressus, past participle of (exprimere) (see Etymology 2, below).Adjective
(en adjective)- I gave him express instructions not to begin until I arrived, but he ignored me.
- This book cannot be copied without the express permission of the publisher.
- In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance.
- Their human countenance / The express resemblance of the gods.
Synonyms
* explicit * (of a train) fast, crackAntonyms
* impliedNoun
(es)- I took the express into town.
citation, passage=The train was moving less fast through the summer night. The swift express had changed into something almost a parliamentary, had stopped three times since Norwich, and now, at long last, was approaching Banton.}}
- "Give me my express ," I said, laying down the Winchester, and he handed it to me cocked.
- the only remanent express of Christ's sacrifice on earth
- She charged him to ask at the express if anything came up from town.
- (Eikon Basilike)
Synonyms
* (of a train) fast trainAntonyms
* (of a train) local, stopperEtymology 2
From (etyl) espresser, (expresser), from frequentative form of (etyl) exprimere.Verb
(es)- The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl [...].
Synonyms
* (l), (l)Noun
(expresses)- Whereby they discoursed in silence, and were intuitively understood from the theory of their expresses .
- This Gentleman [...] caused a man to go down no less than a hundred fathom, with express to take notice whether it were hard or soft in the place where it groweth.
let
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) leten, .Verb
The tao of tech, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",
- Soo within a whyle kynge Pellinore cam with a grete hoost / and salewed the peple and the kyng / and ther was grete ioye made on euery syde / Thenne the kyng lete serche how moche people of his party ther was slayne / And ther were founde but lytel past two honderd men slayne and viij kny?tes of the table round in their pauelions
Synonyms
* (to allow) allow, permitUsage notes
The use of "let" to introduce an imperative may sometimes be confused with its use, as its own imperative , in the sense of "to allow". For example, the sentence "Let me go to the store." could either be a second-person imperative of "let" (addressing someone who might prevent the speaker from going to the store) or a first-person singular imperative of "go" (not implying any such preventer).Etymology 2
(etyl) . More at late, delay.Verb
- He who now letteth' will ' let , until he be taken out of the way.
- Mine ancient wound is hardly whole, / And lets me from the saddle.
- And as they went on their waye, they cam unto a certayne water, and the gelded man sayde: Se here is water, what shall lett me to be baptised?