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.

Limber vs Limbed - What's the difference?

limber | limbed |

As verbs the difference between limber and limbed

is that limber is to cause to become limber; to make flexible or pliant while limbed is past tense of limb.

As an adjective limber

is flexible, pliant, bendable.

As a noun limber

is a two-wheeled, horse-drawn vehicle used to pull an artillery piece into battle.

limber

English

Etymology 1

(en)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Flexible, pliant, bendable.
    • He's so limber that he can kiss his knee without bending it.
  • * Turberville
    • The bargeman that doth row with long and limber oar.
    Derived terms
    * limber up

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause to become limber; to make flexible or pliant.
  • * (Richardson)

    • Etymology 2

    For the obsolete (limmer), from (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A two-wheeled, horse-drawn vehicle used to pull an artillery piece into battle.
  • (in the plural) The shafts or thills of a wagon or carriage.
  • (military) The detachable fore part of a gun carriage, consisting of two wheels, an axle, and a shaft to which the horses are attached. On top is an ammunition box upon which the cannoneers sit.
  • *1985 , (Peter Carey), Illywhacker , Faber and Faber 2003, p. 29:
  • *:we covered the rutted, rattling, dusty pot-holed roads of coastal Victoria, six big Walers in front, the cannon at the rear, and that unsprung cart they called a ‘limber ’ in the middle.
  • (nautical, in the plural) Gutters or conduits on each side of the keelson to allow water to pass to the pump well.
    • Usage notes
    * Sometimes the plural limbers was used to refer to a single such vehicle.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To prepare an artillery piece for transportation (i.e., to attach it to its limber.)
    • Antonyms
    * unlimber

    References

    * Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989. * Notes:

    limbed

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (limb)

    • Anagrams

    * *

    limb

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) lim, from (etyl) . The silent -b began to appear in the late 1500s.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing).
  • *
  • *:Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, withon one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs .
  • A branch of a tree.
  • (lb) The part of the bow, from the handle to the tip.
  • (lb) The border or upper spreading part of a monopetalous corolla, or of a petal or sepal; blade.
  • (lb) The border or edge of the disk of a heavenly body, especially of the sun or moon.
  • The graduated margin of an arc or circle in an instrument for measuring angles.
  • An elementary piece of the mechanism of a lock.
  • A thing or person regarded as a part or member of, or attachment to, something else.
  • *Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
  • *:That little limb of the devil has cheated the gallows.
    • Derived terms
    * go out on a limb

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To remove the limbs from an animal or tree.
    • They limbed the felled trees before cutting them into logs.
  • To supply with limbs.
  • * , Walden :
    • Man was not made so large limbed and robust but that he must seek to narrow his world and wall in a space such as fitted him.
    (Milton)
    Synonyms
    * delimb

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) limbus , "border".

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (astronomy) The apparent visual edge of a celestial body.
    • solar limb
  • (on a measuring instrument) The graduated edge of a circle or arc.

    • See also

    {{ picdic , image=Human body features-nb.svg , detail1= }}

    Statistics

    * English terms with multiple etymologies