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Hobble vs Prevent - What's the difference?

hobble | prevent |

As verbs the difference between hobble and prevent

is that hobble is to fetter by tying the legs; to restrict (a horse) with hobbles while prevent is to stop; to keep (from happening).

As a noun hobble

is short straps tied between the legs of unfenced horses, allowing them to wander short distances but preventing them from running off.

hobble

English

Noun

  • (en noun) (usually in plural )
  • Short straps tied between the legs of unfenced horses, allowing them to wander short distances but preventing them from running off.
  • An unsteady, off-balance step.

    • Synonyms

    * tether (rope)

    Verb

  • To fetter by tying the legs; to restrict (a horse) with hobbles.
    • (Charles Dickens)
  • To walk lame, or unevenly.
  • * Dryden
    • The friar was hobbling the same way too.
  • (figurative) To move roughly or irregularly.
  • * Jeffreys
    • The hobbling versification, the mean diction.
  • To perplex; to embarrass.

    • Derived terms

    * hobble skirt * hobbly * unhobble

    prevent

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To stop; to keep (from happening).
    • I brushed my teeth to prevent them from going yellow.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Tom Fordyce , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Scotland must now hope Georgia produce a huge upset and beat Argentina by at least eight points in Sunday's final Pool B match to prevent them failing to make the last eight for the first time in World Cup history.}}
  • * 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :
    • ‘I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent !’
  • (obsolete) To come before; to precede.
  • * Bible, 1 Thess. iv. 15
    • We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
  • * Book of Common Prayer
    • We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.
  • * Prior
    • Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen.
  • (obsolete) To outdo, surpass.
  • * 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.i:
    • With that he put his spurres vnto his steed, / With speare in rest, and toward him did fare, / Like shaft out of a bow preuenting speed.
  • (obsolete) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • their ready guilt preventing thy commands

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * preventative * prevention * preventive