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Fist vs Press - What's the difference?

fist | press |

As an initialism fist

is future infantry soldier technology.

As a noun press is

(lb) a device used to apply pressure to an item.

As a verb press is

(ambitransitive) to exert weight or force against, to act upon with with force or weight.

fist

English

(Webster 1913)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) fisten, fiesten, from (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)
  • To break wind.
  • Derived terms
    * (l)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of breaking wind; fise.
  • A puffball.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) fist, from (etyl) 'five'. More at five.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • hand with the fingers clenched or curled inward
  • The boxer's fists rained down on his opponent in the last round.
  • (printing) the pointing hand symbol
  • (ham radio) the characteristic signaling rhythm of an individual telegraph or CW operator when sending Morse code
  • (slang) a person's characteristic handwriting
  • A group of men.
  • The talons of a bird of prey.
  • * Spenser
  • More light than culver in the falcon's fist .
  • (informal) An attempt at something.
  • * 2005 , Darryl N. Davis, Visions of Mind: Architectures for Cognition and Affect (page 144)
  • With the rise of cognitive neuroscience, the time may be coming when we can make a reasonable fist of mapping down from an understanding of the functional architecture of the mind to the structural architecture of the brain.
    Synonyms
    * bunch of fives * fist-size * ductus
    Derived terms
    * fisty * iron fist * hand over fist * fistful * rule with an iron fist

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To strike with the fist.
  • ...may not score a point with his open hand(s), but may score a point by fisting the ball.'' Damian Cullen. "Running the rule." ''The Irish Times 18 Aug 2003, pg. 52.
  • To close (the hand) into a fist.
  • * 1969 , Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor , Penguin 2011, p. 29:
  • He noticed Ada's trick of hiding her fingernails by fisting her hand or stretching it with the palm turned upward when helping herself to a biscuit.
  • To grip with a fist.
  • * 1851 ,
  • I am an officer; but, how I wish I could fist a bit of old-fashioned beef in the fore-castle, as I used to when I was before the mast.
  • (slang) To fist-fuck.
  • See also

    * knuckle * punch

    Anagrams

    * *

    press

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) ).

    Noun

  • (lb) A device used to apply pressure to an item.
  • :
  • #(lb) A printing machine.
  • #:
  • (lb) A collective term for the print-based media (both the people and the newspapers).
  • :
  • *, chapter=22
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press , the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
  • , title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}
  • (lb) A publisher.
  • (lb) (especially in Ireland and Scotland) An enclosed storage space (e.g. closet, cupboard).
  • :
  • *
  • *:But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ΒΆ.
  • An exercise in which weight is forced away from the body by extension of the arms or legs.
  • *1974 , Charles Gaines & George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding , p.22:
  • *:This is the fourth set of benchpresses. There will be five more; then there will be five sets of presses on an inclined bench.
  • An additional bet in a golf match that duplicates an existing (usually losing) wager in value, but begins even at the time of the bet.
  • :
  • (lb) Pure, unfermented grape juice.
  • :
  • A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:I have misused the king's press .
  • Synonyms
    * (storage space) closet, cupboard, wardrobe (British ) * (printing machine) printing press
    Derived terms
    * alternative press * bench press * fruit press * press cake * press gang * press-mark * press officer * press secretary * shoulder press * trouser press

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) .

    Verb

  • (ambitransitive) to exert weight or force against, to act upon with with force or weight
  • to compress, squeeze
  • to press fruit for the purpose of extracting the juice
  • to clasp, hold in an embrace; to hug
  • She took her son, and press'd
    The illustrious infant to her fragrant breast'' (''Dryden , Illiad, VI. 178.)
  • to reduce to a particular shape or form by pressure, especially flatten or smooth
  • to press cloth with an iron
    to press a hat
  • (sewing) To flatten a selected area of fabric using an iron with an up-and-down, not sliding, motion, so as to avoid disturbing adjacent areas.
  • to drive or thrust by pressure, to force in a certain direction
  • to press a crowd back
  • (obsolete) to weigh upon, oppress, trouble
  • He turns from us;
    Alas, he weeps too! Something presses him
    He would reveal, but dare not.-Sir, be comforted.'' (''Fletcher , Pilgrim, I. 2.)
  • to force to a certain end or result; to urge strongly, impel
  • *
  • The two gentlemen who conducted me to the island were pressed by their private affairs to return in three days.
  • To try to force (something upon someone); to urge or inculcate.
  • to press the Bible on an audience
  • * Dryden
  • He pressed a letter upon me within this hour.
  • * Addison
  • Be sure to press upon him every motive.
  • to hasten, urge onward
  • to press a horse in a race
  • to urge, beseech, entreat
  • God heard their prayers, wherein they earnestly pressed him for the honor of his great name.'' (''Winthrop , Hist. New England, II. 35)
  • to lay stress upon, emphasize
  • If we read but a very little, we naturally want to press it all; if we read a great deal, we are willing not to press the whole of what we read, and we learn what ought to be pressed and what not.'' (''M. Arnold , Literature and Dogma, Pref.)
  • (ambitransitive) to throng, crowd
  • (obsolete) to print
  • To force into service, particularly into naval service.
  • * Dryden
  • To peaceful peasant to the wars is pressed .
    Synonyms
    * *
    Derived terms
    * press charges * press on

    See also

    * hot press (baking, laundry) * hot off the press (printing) * press down

    References

    * Entry for the imperfect and past participle in Webster's dictionary * *

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----