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Litter vs Span - What's the difference?

litter | span |

As nouns the difference between litter and span

is that litter is a platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol while span is the space from the thumb to the end of the little finger when extended; nine inches; eighth of a fathom.

As verbs the difference between litter and span

is that litter is to drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles) while span is to traverse the distance between.

As an acronym SPAN is

suicide Prevention Advocacy Network.

litter

English

Noun

(wikipedia litter)
  • (countable) A platform mounted on two shafts, or a more elaborate construction, designed to be carried by two (or more) people to transport one (in luxury models sometimes more) third person(s) or (occasionally in the elaborate version) a cargo, such as a religious idol.
  • * Shakespeare
    • There is a litter ready; lay him in 't.
  • (countable) The offspring of a mammal born in one birth.
  • * D. Estrange
    • A wolf came to a sow, and very kindly offered to take care of her litter .
  • (uncountable) Material used as bedding for animals.
  • (uncountable) Collectively, items discarded on the ground.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • Strephon / Stole in, and took a strict survey / Of all the litter as it lay.
  • (uncountable) Absorbent material used in an animal's litter tray
  • (uncountable) Layer of fallen leaves and similar organic matter in a forest floor.
  • A covering of straw for plants.
  • * Evelyn
    • Take off the litter from your kernel beds.

    Synonyms

    * (platform designed to carry a person or a load): palanquin, sedan chair, stretcher, cacolet * (items discarded on the ground): waste, rubbish, garbage (US), trash (US), junk

    Derived terms

    * cat litter * litter bin * litter bug, litterbug * litter frog

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To drop or throw trash without properly disposing of it (as discarding in public areas rather than trash receptacles).
  • * By tossing the bottle out the window, he was littering .
  • To strew with scattered articles.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • the room with volumes littered round
  • To give birth to, used of animals.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
    • We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The son that she did litter here, / A freckled whelp hagborn.
  • To produce a litter of young.
  • * Macaulay
    • A desert where the she-wolf still littered .
  • To supply (cattle etc.) with litter; to cover with litter, as the floor of a stall.
  • * Bishop Hacke
    • Tell them how they litter their jades.
  • * Dryden
    • For his ease, well littered was the floor.
  • To be supplied with litter as bedding; to sleep or make one's bed in litter.
  • * Habington
    • The inn where he and his horse littered .

    Derived terms

    * litterer

    Anagrams

    * ---- ==Jèrriais==

    Verb

    (roa-jer-verb)
  • to wrestle

    • Derived terms

    *

    span

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) spann

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The space from the thumb to the end of the little finger when extended; nine inches; eighth of a fathom.
  • Hence, a small space or a brief portion of time.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Yet not to earth's contracted span / Thy goodness let me bound.
  • * Farquhar
    • Life's but a span ; I'll every inch enjoy.
  • * 2007 . Zerzan, John. Silence .
    • The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans ,
  • The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.
  • The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
  • (nautical) A rope having its ends made fast so that a purchase can be hooked to the bight; also, a rope made fast in the center so that both ends can be used.
  • (obsolete) A pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.
  • (mathematics) the space of all linear combinations of something
    • Related terms
    * attention span * memory span

    Etymology 2

    Old English spannan

    Verb

    (spann)
  • To traverse the distance between.
    • The suspension bridge spanned the canyon as tenuously as one could imagine.
  • To cover or extend over an area or time period.
    • The parking lot spans three acres.
    The novel spans three centuries.
    World record! 5 GHz WiFi connection spans 189 miles. [http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/27/world-record-5ghz-wifi-connection-spans-189-miles/]
  • * Prescott
    • The rivers were spanned by arches of solid masonry.
  • To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.
    • to span''' a space or distance; to '''span a cylinder
  • * Bible, Isa. xiviii. 13
    • My right hand hath spanned the heavens.
  • (mathematics) to generate an entire space by means of linear combinations
  • (intransitive, US, dated) To be matched, as horses.
  • To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.

    • Etymology 3

    Verb

    (head)
  • (archaic, nonstandard) (spin)
  • *
  • * '>citation
  • *:a giant pick-up truck span out of control during a stunt show in a Dutch town, killing three people

    • Anagrams

    * English irregular simple past forms ----