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Harbour vs Contain - What's the difference?

harbour | contain |

In transitive terms the difference between harbour and contain

is that harbour is to accept, as with a belief while contain is to put constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.

As a noun harbour

is shelter, refuge.

harbour

English

Alternative forms

* herberwe (obsolete) * herborough (obsolete) * harbor (now US)

Noun

(wikipedia harbour)
  • (en noun) (British, Canada)
  • (obsolete, uncountable) Shelter, refuge.
  • A place of shelter or refuge.
  • The neighbourhood is a well-known harbour for petty thieves.
  • (obsolete) A house of the zodiac.
  • * Late 14th century: To ech of hem his tyme and his seson, / As thyn herberwe chaungeth lowe or heighe — Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin’s Tale’, Canterbury Tales
  • A sheltered area for ships; a piece of water adjacent to land in which ships may stop to load and unload.
  • The city has an excellent natural harbour .
  • (astrology) The mansion of a heavenly body.
  • A mixing box for materials in glass-working.
  • Derived terms

    * harbourage * harbourmaster * unharboured

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To provide shelter or refuge for.
  • The docks, which once harboured''' tall ships, now '''harbour only petty thieves.
  • * Bishop Burnet
  • The bare suspicion made it treason to harbour the person suspected.
  • * Rowe
  • Let not your gentle breast harbour one thought of outrage.
  • To accept, as with a belief.
  • That scientist harbours the belief that God created humans.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=September 7 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Moldova 0-5 England , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=If Moldova harboured even the slightest hopes of pulling off a comeback that would have bordered on miraculous given their lack of quality, they were snuffed out 13 minutes before the break when Oxlade-Chamberlain picked his way through midfield before releasing Defoe for a finish that should have been dealt with more convincingly by Namasco at his near post.}}

    See also

    * dock * haven

    contain

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To hold inside.
  • *
  • At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria,
  • (lb) To include as a part.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2014-04-21, volume=411, issue=8884, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Subtle effects , passage=Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.}}
  • (lb) To put constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • The king's person contains the unruly people from evil occasions.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves.
  • *
  • Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.
  • To have as an element.
  • To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.
  • * Bible, vii. 9.
  • But if they can not contain , let them marry.

    Synonyms

    * (hold inside) enclose, inhold * (include as part) comprise, embody, incorporate, inhold * (limit by restraint) control, curb, repress, restrain, restrict, stifle

    Antonyms

    * (include as part) exclude, omit * (limit by restraint) release, vent