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Grin vs Caustic - What's the difference?

grin | caustic |

As nouns the difference between grin and caustic

is that grin is a smile in which the lips are parted to reveal the teeth while caustic is any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.

As a verb grin

is to smile, parting the lips so as to show the teeth.

As an adjective caustic is

capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.

grin

English

Etymology 1

Before 1000 CE - From (etyl) grinnen, from (etyl) grennian; compare to (etyl)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A smile in which the lips are parted to reveal the teeth.
  • * 1997, Linda Howard, Son of the Morning, Simon & Schuster, pages 364:
    • When the ceremony was finished a wide grin''' broke across his face, and it was that '''grin she saw, relieved and happy all at once.

    Verb

    (intransitive)
  • (lb) To smile, parting the lips so as to show the teeth.
  • :
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=15 citation , passage=‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’}}
  • (lb) To express by grinning.
  • :
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Grinned horrible a ghastly smile.
  • *
  • *:"Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins ," remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: "Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir! "
  • To show the teeth, like a snarling dog.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:The pangs of death do make him grin .
  • *
  • *:They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
    • Derived terms
    * fish-eating grin * pickin' and grinnin' * shit-eating grin

    See also

    * grimace * smile

    Etymology 2

    (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A snare; a gin.
  • * Remedy of Love
    • Like a bird that hasteth to his grin .

    Anagrams

    * ----

    caustic

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
  • Sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;

    Synonyms

    * (capable of destroying tissue ): acidic, biting, burning, corrosive, searing * (severe, sharp ): bitchy, biting, catty, mordacious, nasty, sarcastic, scathing, sharp, spiteful

    Quotations

    * 1843': "How now!" said Scrooge, '''caustic and cold as ever. — Charles Dickens, ''A Christmas Carol * 1843': The bargain was not concluded as easily as might have been expected though, for Scadder was '''caustic and ill-humoured, and cast much unnecessary opposition in the way — Charles Dickens, ''Martin Chuzzlewit * 1853': Madame Beck esteemed me learned and blue; Miss Fanshawe, '''caustic , ironic, and cynical — Charlotte Bronte, ''Villette * 1857':The Secretary and the Assistant-Secretaries would say little '''caustic things about him to the senior clerks, and seemed somewhat to begrudge him his new honours. — Anthony Trollope, ''The Three Clerks * 1886': this set of worthies, who were only too prone to shut up their emotions with '''caustic words. — Thomas Hardy, ''The Mayor of Casterbridge * 1930s???': though he came too late / To join the martyrs, there was still a place / Among the tempters for a ' caustic tongue / / To test the resolution of the young / With tales of the small failings of the great — W.H.Auden, 'The Quest'

    Derived terms

    * caustic curve * caustic potash * caustic soda * caustic surface

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.
  • (optics, computer graphics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object.
  • (mathematics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve.
  • (informal, chemistry) caustic soda

    • Derived terms

    * lunar caustic