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Fountain vs Geyser - What's the difference?

fountain | geyser |

As nouns the difference between fountain and geyser

is that fountain is a spring, natural source of water while geyser is a boiling natural spring which throws forth at frequent intervals jets of water, mud etc., driven up by the expansive power of steam.

As a verb fountain

is to flow or gush as if from a fountain.

fountain

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (label) A spring, natural source of water.
  • An artificial, usually ornamental, water feature (usually in a garden or public place) consisting of one or more streams of water originating from a statue or other structure.
  • The structure from which an artificial fountain can issue.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./4/2
  • , passage=As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain , and he fled away with a cameo note.}}
  • A reservoir from which liquid can be drawn.
  • A source, origin of a flow (e.g. of favors, of knowledge).
  • A juggling pattern typically done with an even number of props where each prop is caught by the same hand that thows it.
  • (label) A roundel barry wavy argent and azure.
  • (label) A soda fountain.
  • Synonyms

    * fount * wellspring

    Derived terms

    * fountainlet * fountain pen * fountainhead * drinking fountain * soda fountain * water fountain

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To flow or gush as if from a fountain.
  • * (Tom Reamy), Blind Voices
  • The fireflies swept toward him from all directions, in streams and rivers and currents of light, a vortex a hundred yards across, spiraling into the brighter center. They met over his supine body like ocean breakers, cascading, fountaining into the air.

    Anagrams

    *

    References

    geyser

    English

    Noun

    describes geysers in the History subsection of the article:
    (en noun)
  • (planetology, geology, volcanology) A boiling natural spring which throws forth at frequent intervals jets of water, mud etc., driven up by the expansive power of steam.
  • (British, archaic) An instantaneous, and often dangerous, hot water heater.
  • * 1902 . William Paton Buchan, Plumbing: A Text-book to the Practice of the Art Or Craft of the Plumber :
  • Where a Geyser or hot-water heater is used it is a good and wise precaution to see that the bath-room, &c., when it is used is well ventilated.
  • * 1998 , Gordon S Riess, Confessions of a Corporate Centurion: Tales of International Adventures
  • Water was heated either on the gas stove, or on a wall mounted gas-fired "geyser " heater.
  • * 2002 , Alaine Polcz, One woman in the war: Hungary, 1944-1945 :
  • It was here I saw a geyser gas water heater in a bathroom for the first time. (I was afraid of it).
  • (South Africa) A domestic water boiler.
  • Derived terms

    * geyserite

    References

    Anagrams

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