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Gruff vs Provincial - What's the difference?

gruff | provincial |

As adjectives the difference between gruff and provincial

is that gruff is having a rough, surly, and harsh demeanor and nature while provincial is of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect.

As a verb gruff

is to speak gruffly.

As a noun provincial is

a person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.

gruff

English

Adjective

(er)
  • having a rough, surly, and harsh demeanor and nature.
  • hoarse-voiced.
  • Quotations

    * 1727' "The manner of it was more after the pleasing Transports of those ancient Poets you are often charm'd with, than after the fierce unsociable way of modern Zealots; those starch'd '''gruff Gentlemen, who guard Religion as Bullys to a Mistress, and give us the while a very indifferent Opinion of their Lady's Merit, and their own Wit, by adoring what they neither allow to be inspected by others, nor care themselves to examine in a fair light." — Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury. ''Characteristicks of men, manners, opinions, times . Vol II. p218 * 1729' "They had no Titles of Honour among them, but such as denoted some Bodily Strength or Perfection, as such an one ''the Tall'', such an one ''the Stocky'', such an one the '''Gruff ." — Joseph Addison, Richard Steele. ''The Spectator. Vol VI, No 433. p146 * 1825' "Mr. Suberville, as well as she, surprised and pleased at this proof of politeness so unsuited to his gouty appearance and '''gruff manners, looked at him in astonishment, but were sorry to perceive him stoop down as if he had strained his leg in the exertion, while the pain it caused seemed to have driven every drop of his blood into his sallow face." — Thomas Colley Grattan. ''High-ways and by-ways. Vol III. p209-10

    Derived terms

    * gruffly * gruffness

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To speak gruffly.
  • * 2001 , Benny Hinn, He Touched Me: An Autobiography
  • “Who gave you that?” replied my father angrily. “Did you bribe someone?” “No,” I told him. “It was a gift, from some people who really want me to be on this trip.” “Fine,” he gruffed .
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    provincial

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect.
  • Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province.
  • * ,
  • Provincial airs and graces.
  • Not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal.
  • * Ayliffe,
  • Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as, a provincial synod.
  • (obsolete) Of or pertaining to Provence; Provencal.
  • * ,
  • With two Provincial roses on my razed shoes.
  • limited in outlook; narrow
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
  • (Roman Catholicism) A monastic superior, who, under the general of his order, has the direction of all the religious houses of the same fraternity in a given district, called a province of the order.
  • * 2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin 2010, p. 700:
  • The Franciscan provincial Diego de Landa set up a local Inquisition which unleashed a campaign of interrogation and torture on the Indio population.
  • A country bumpkin.
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