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Paroxysm vs Bout - What's the difference?

paroxysm | bout |

As nouns the difference between paroxysm and bout

is that paroxysm is a random or sudden outburst (of activity) while bout is a period of something, usually painful or unpleasant.

As a verb bout is

to contest a bout.

As a preposition bout is

about.

paroxysm

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A random or sudden outburst (of activity).
  • * 1903 , (Jack London), (The Call of the Wild)
    • Unable to turn his back on the fanged danger and go on, the bull would be driven into paroxysms of rage.
  • *, chapter=23
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.}}
  • * 1955 , (Vladimir Nabokov), (Lolita)
    • «There, on the soft sand, a few feet away from our elders, we would sprawl all morning, in a petrified paroxysm of desire, and take advantage of every blessed quirk in space and time to touch each other»
  • * 1983 , (John Fowles), Mantissa
    • Indeed in his excitement at this breakthrough he inadvertently dug his nails into the nurse's bottom, a gesture she misinterpreted, so that he had to suffer a paroxysm of breasts and loins in response.
  • An explosive event during a volcanic eruption.
  • A sudden recurrence of a disease.

    • Derived terms

    * paroxysmal

    External links

    * * *

    bout

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) bught, probably from an unrecorded (etyl) variant of . http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bout?s=t See bight, bought.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A period of something, usually painful or unpleasant
    • a bout of drought .
  • (boxing) A boxing match.
  • (fencing) An assault (a fencing encounter) at which the score is kept.
  • (roller derby) A roller derby match.
  • A fighting competition.
  • * 1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)
    • Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that every day they gained in skill and strength.
  • (music) A bulge or widening in a musical instrument, such as either of the two characteristic bulges of a guitar.
  • (dated) The going and returning of a plough, or other implement used to mark the ground and create a headland, across a field.
  • * 1809 , A Letter to Sir John Sinclair [...] containing a Statement of the System under which a considerable Farm is profitably managed in Hertfordshire. Given at the request of the Board. By Thomas Greg, Esq.'', published in ''The Farmer's Magazine , page 395:
    • The outside bout' of each land is ploughed two inches deeper, and from thence the water runs into cross furrows, which are dug with a spade [...] I have an instrument of great power, called a scarifier, for this purpose. It is drawn by four horses, and completely prepares the land for the seed at each ' bout .
  • * 1922 , An Ingenious One-Way Agrimotor'', published in ''The Commercial Motor , volume 34, published by Temple Press, page 32:
    • It is in this manner that the ploughs are reversed at the termination of each bout of the field.
  • * 1976 , Claude Culpin, Farm Machinery , page 60:
    • The last two rounds must be ploughed shallower, and on the last bout the strip left should be one furrow width for a two-furrow plough, two for a three-furrow, and so on. [...]

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To contest a bout.

    • Etymology 2

    Written form of a of "about".

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • (colloquial) about
    • they're talking bout you!
    Maddy is bout to get beat up!

    References

    English contractions ----