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Finish vs Through - What's the difference?

finish | through |

As nouns the difference between finish and through

is that finish is an end: the end of anything while through is a large slab of stone laid on a tomb.

As a verb finish

is (label) to complete (something).

As a preposition through is

from one side of an opening to the other.

As an adjective through is

passing from one side of an object to the other.

As an adverb through is

from one side to the other by way of the interior.

finish

English

Noun

(es)
  • an end: the end of anything
  • a protective coating given to wood or metal and other surfaces
  • the result of any process changing the physical or chemical properties of cloth
  • (label) a shot on goal, especially one that ends in a goal
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=September 2 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Bulgaria 0-3 England , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The Italian opted for Bolton's Cahill alongside captain John Terry - and his decision was rewarded with a goal after only 13 minutes. Bulgaria gave a hint of defensive frailties to come when they failed to clear Young's corner, and when Gareth Barry found Cahill in the box he applied the finish past Nikolay Mihaylov.}}

    Verb

  • (label) to complete (something)
  • (label) to apply a treatment to (a surface or similar)
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=10 , passage=Mr. Cooke had had a sloop?yacht built at Far Harbor, the completion of which had been delayed, and which was but just delivered. […] The Maria had a cabin, which was finished in hard wood and yellow plush, and accommodations for keeping things cold.}}
  • (label) to change an animal's food supply in the months before it is due for slaughter, with the intention of fattening the animal
  • (label) to come to an end
  • Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (the (-ing) form). See

    Derived terms

    * nice guys finish last

    Antonyms

    * (to complete) initiate, begin, start

    through

    English

    Alternative forms

    * thorow (obsolete) * thru

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) *. See also thorough.

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • From one side of an opening to the other.
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • Entering, then later leaving.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging.He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
  • *
  • *:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= No hiding place , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.}}
  • Surrounded by (while moving).
  • :
  • *, chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Snakes and ladders , passage=Risk is everywhere.
  • By means of.
  • :
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 28, author=Tom Rostance, title=Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos
  • , work=BBC Sport citation , passage=But the home side were ahead in the eighth minute through 18-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The attack of the MOOCs , passage=Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.}}
  • (lb) To (or up to) and including, with all intermediate values.
  • :
  • Derived terms
    (terms derived using the preposition "through") * clear through * feedthrough * get through * go through * look through * right through * through and through * through with * throughput * throughway

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Passing from one side of an object to the other.
  • :
  • Finished; complete.
  • :
  • Valueless; without a future.
  • :
  • No longer interested.
  • :
  • *
  • *:“I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.
  • *1977 , Iggy Pop,
  • *:I'm worth a million in prizes / Yeah, I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk / No more beating my brains / No more beating my brains / With the liquor and drugs / With the liquor and drugs
  • Proceeding from origin to destination without delay due to change of equipment.
  • :
  • Adverb

    (-)
  • From one side to the other by way of the interior.
  • The arrow went straight through .
  • From one end to the other.
  • Others slept; he worked straight through .
    She read the letter through .
  • To the end.
  • He said he would see it through .
  • Completely.
  • Leave the yarn in the dye overnight so the color soaks through .
  • Out into the open.
  • The American army broke through at St. Lo.

    References

    * Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Bounded landmarks", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition , Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A large slab of stone laid on a tomb.