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Impose vs Complicate - What's the difference?

impose | complicate |

As verbs the difference between impose and complicate

is that impose is while complicate is to fold or twist together; to combine intricately; to make complex; to combine or associate so as to make intricate or difficult.

As an adjective complicate is

(obsolete) intertwined.

impose

English

Verb

(impos)
  • To establish or apply by authority.
  • * Milton
  • Death is the penalty imposed .
    Congress imposed new tariffs.
  • * 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
  • Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.
  • to be an inconvenience
  • I don't wish to impose upon you.
  • to enforce: compel to behave in a certain way
  • Social relations impose courtesy
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 10 , author=Arindam Rej , title=Norwich 4 - 2 Newcastle , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Norwich soon began imposing themselves on that patched-up defence with Holt having their best early chance, only to see it blocked by Simpson.}}
  • To practice a trick or deception.
  • To lay on, as the hands, in the religious rites of confirmation and ordination.
  • To arrange in proper order on a table of stone or metal and lock up in a chase for printing; said of columns or pages of type, forms, etc.
  • Derived terms

    * imposition * superimpose * imposure

    complicate

    English

    Verb

    (complicat)
  • To fold or twist together; to combine intricately; to make complex; to combine or associate so as to make intricate or difficult.
  • Don't complicate yourself in issues that are beyond the scope of your education.
  • to expose involvement in a convoluted matter.
  • John has been complicated in the affair by new tapes that surfaced.
    The DA has made every effort to complicate me in the scandal.

    Synonyms

    * (expose involvement in a convoluted matter) intricate, entangle, embroil, mix up (in something), mire

    See also

    * complex

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Intertwined.
  • Complex, complicated.
  • * 1745 , Edward Young, Night-Thoughts , I:
  • How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, / How complicate , how wonderful, is Man!