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Obtain vs Remove - What's the difference?

obtain | remove |

As verbs the difference between obtain and remove

is that obtain is to get hold of; to gain possession of, to procure; to acquire, in any way while remove is (label) to move something from one place to another, especially to take away.

As a noun remove is

the act of removing something.

obtain

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To get hold of; to gain possession of, to procure; to acquire, in any way.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Luke XVIII:
  • And a certayne ruler axed him: sayinge: Goode Master: what ought I to do, to obtaine eternall lyfe?
  • * 1814 , (Jane Austen), (Mansfield Park) :
  • Julia was quite as eager for novelty and pleasure as Maria, though she might not have struggled through so much to obtain them, and could better bear a subordinate situation.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. Partly, this is a result of how online advertising has traditionally worked: advertisers pay for clicks, and a click is a click, however it's obtained .}}
  • (obsolete) To secure (that) a specific objective or state of affairs be reached.
  • * 1722 , (Daniel Defoe), (Colonel Jack) :
  • he was condemned to die for the felony, and being so well known for an old offender, had certainly died, but the merchant, upon his earnest application, had obtained that he should be transported, on condition that he restored all the rest of his bills, which he had done accordingly.
  • (obsolete) To prevail, be victorious; to succeed.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.2:
  • “O daughter deare!” (said she) “despeire no whit; / For never sore but might a salve obtain [...].”
  • * 1701 , (Jonathan Swift), Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome :
  • This, though it failed at present, yet afterward obtained , and was a mighty step to the ruin of the commonwealth.
  • (obsolete) To hold; to keep, possess or occupy.
  • * 1671 , (John Milton), (Paradise Regained) , Book I:
  • His mother then is mortal, but his Sire / He who obtains the monarchy of Heav'n, / And what will he not do to advance his Son?
  • To exist or be the case; to hold true, be in force.
  • * 1908 , (Jack London), (The Iron Heel) , ,
  • Even though the Pervaise confession had never come to light, no reasonable doubt could obtain ; for the act in question was on a par with countless other acts committed by the oligarchs, and, before them, by the capitalists.
  • * 1992 , (Neal Stephenson), (Snow Crash) , Bantam Spectra, p. 460,
  • But the hostage situation no longer obtains , and so Uncle Enzo feels it important to stop Rife now,

    remove

    English

    Verb

    (remov)
  • (label) To move something from one place to another, especially to take away.
  • :
  • *(Bible), (w) xix.14:
  • *:Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed , she had reverted to her normal gaiety.  She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.}}
  • # To replace a dish within a course.
  • #*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
  • , passage=But Richmond
  • (label) To murder.
  • To dismiss a batsman.
  • (label) To discard, set aside, especially something abstract (a thought, feeling, etc.).
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.viii:
  • *:Die had she rather in tormenting griefe, / Then any should of falsenesse her reproue, / Or loosenesse, that she lightly did remoue .
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Karen McVeigh
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=10, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= US rules human genes can't be patented , passage=The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.}}
  • To depart, leave.
  • *:
  • *:THenne the kynge dyd doo calle syre Gawayne / syre Borce / syr Lyonel and syre Bedewere / and commaunded them to goo strayte to syre Lucius / and saye ye to hym that hastely he remeue oute of my land / And yf he wil not / bydde hym make hym redy to bataylle and not distresse the poure peple
  • (label) To change one's residence; to move.
  • *(William Shakespeare)
  • *:Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane.
  • *1719 , (Daniel Defoe), (Robinson Crusoe)
  • *:Now my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place where I lived.
  • *1834 , (David Crockett), A Narrative of the Life of , Nebraska 1987, p.20:
  • *:Shortly after this, my father removed , and settled in the same county, about ten miles above Greenville.
  • To dismiss or discharge from office.
  • :
  • Synonyms

    * unstay

    Antonyms

    * (move something from one place to another) settle, place, add

    Derived terms

    * removable * removal * remover

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of removing something.
  • * (rfdate) (Milton)
  • This place should be at once both school and university, not needing a remove to any other house of scholarship.
  • * (rfdate) (Goldsmith)
  • And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
  • (archaic) Removing a dish at a meal in order to replace it with the next course, a dish thus replaced, or the replacement.
  • (British) (at some public schools ) A division of the school, especially the form prior to last
  • A step or gradation (as in the phrase "at one remove")
  • * (rfdate) (Addison)
  • A freeholder is but one remove from a legislator.
  • Distance in time or space; interval.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2007, author=James D. McCallister, title=King's Highway, page=162, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=DnRD6B3PPAoC&pg=PA162
  • , passage=In his unfortunate absence at this far remove of 2007, Zevon's musicianship and irascible wit are as missed as ever.}}
  • (dated) The transfer of one's home or business to another place; a move.
  • * (rfdate)
  • It is an English proverb that three removes are as bad as a fire.
  • The act of resetting a horse's shoe.
  • (Jonathan Swift)

    References

    * OED 2nd edition 1989 1000 English basic words ----