What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Haunt vs Vaunt - What's the difference?

haunt | vaunt |

In transitive terms the difference between haunt and vaunt

is that haunt is to stalk, to follow while vaunt is to boast of; to make a vain display of; to display with ostentation.

In intransitive terms the difference between haunt and vaunt

is that haunt is to persist in staying or visiting while vaunt is to speak boastfully.

haunt

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (Scotland)

Verb

(en verb)
  • To inhabit, or visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
  • A couple of ghosts haunt the old, burnt-down house.
  • * Shakespeare
  • You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • those cares that haunt the court and town
  • * Fairfax
  • Foul spirits haunt my resting place.
  • To make uneasy, restless.
  • The memory of his past failures haunted him.
  • To stalk, to follow
  • The policeman haunted him, following him everywhere.
  • To live habitually; to stay, to remain.
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , John XI:
  • Jesus therfore walked no more openly amonge the iewes: butt went his waye thence vnto a countre ny to a wildernes into a cite called effraym, and there haunted with his disciples.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.x:
  • yonder in that wastefull wildernesse / Huge monsters haunt , and many dangers dwell
  • To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
  • * Wyclif
  • Haunt thyself to pity.
  • To practise; to devote oneself to.
  • * Ascham
  • Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.
  • To persist in staying or visiting.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I've charged thee not to haunt about my doors.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A place at which one is regularly found; a hangout.
  • *
  • * 1868 , , "Kitty's Class Day":
  • Both Jack and Fletcher had graduated the year before, but still took an interest in their old haunts , and patronized the fellows who were not yet through.
  • * 1984 , Timothy Loughran and Natalie Angier, " Science: Striking It Rich in Wyoming," Time , 8 Oct.:
  • Wyoming has been a favorite haunt of paleontologists for the past century ever since westering pioneers reported that many vertebrate fossils were almost lying on the ground.
  • (dialect) A ghost.
  • * 1891 , Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 93:
  • Harnts don't wander much ginerally,’ he said. ‘They hand round thar own buryin'-groun' mainly.’
  • A feeding place for animals.Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.
  • References

    Anagrams

    *

    vaunt

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) vaunter, variant of (etyl) vanter, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To speak boastfully.
  • * 1829 — , chapter XC
  • "The number," said he, "is great, but what can be expected from mere citizen soldiers? They vaunt and menace in time of safety; none are so arrogant when the enemy is at a distance; but when the din of war thunders at the gates they hide themselves in terror."
  • To speak boastfully about.
  • To boast of; to make a vain display of; to display with ostentation.
  • * Bible, 1 Cor. xiii. 4
  • Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.
  • * Milton
  • My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil.
    Synonyms
    * (speak boastfully) boast, brag
    Derived terms
    * vaunter

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A boast; an instance of vaunting.
  • * Milton
  • the spirits beneath, whom I seduced / with other promises and other vaunts
  • * 1904 — , Book II, chapter III
  • He has answered me back, vaunt' for ' vaunt , rhetoric for rhetoric.

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) . See avant, vanguard.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) The first part.
  • (Shakespeare)
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    *