Pearl vs Purl - What's the difference?
pearl | purl |
A shelly concretion, usually rounded, and having a brilliant luster, with varying tints, found in the mantle, or between the mantle and shell, of certain bivalve mollusks, especially in the pearl oysters and river mussels, and sometimes in certain univalves. It is usually due to a secretion of shelly substance around some irritating foreign particle. Its substance is the same as nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Round lustrous pearls are used in jewellery.
(figuratively) Something precious.
* Shakespeare
* 1920 , (Herman Cyril McNeile), Bulldog Drummond Chapter 1
A capsule of gelatin or similar substance containing liquid for e.g. medicinal application.
Nacre, or mother-of-pearl.
A whitish speck or film on the eye.
A fish allied to the turbot; the brill.
A light-colored tern.
One of the circle of tubercles which form the bur on a deer's antler.
(typography) Five-point size of type, between agate and diamond.
A fringe or border.
To set or adorn with pearls, or with mother-of-pearl. Used also figuratively.
To cause to resemble pearls; to make into small round grains; as, to pearl barley.
To resemble pearl or pearls.
To give or hunt for pearls; as, to go pearling.
(surfing) to dig the nose of one's surfboard into the water, often on takeoff.
* 1999, Joanne VanMeter [http://www.letsplay.net/archive99/020399.shtml]:
A particular stitch in knitting; an inversion of stitches giving the work a ribbed or waved appearance.
The edge of lace trimmed with loops.
An embroidered and puckered border; a hem or fringe, often of gold or silver twist; also, a pleat or fold, as of a band.
* Sir Philip Sidney
To decorate with fringe or embroidered edge
(knitting) an inverted stitch producing ribbing etc
(archaic) To upset, to spin, capsize, fall heavily, fall headlong.
To flow with a murmuring sound in swirls and eddies.
* Alexander Pope
To rise in circles, ripples, or undulations; to curl; to mantle.
* Shakespeare
(UK, dialect) A circle made by the motion of a fluid; an eddy; a ripple.
* Drayton
(UK, dialect) A gentle murmuring sound, such as that produced by the running of a liquid among obstructions.
(archaic) Ale or beer spiced with wormwood or other bitter herbs, regarded as a tonic.
* The Spectator , number 88
(archaic) Hot beer mixed with gin, sugar, and spices.
* Addison
* Charles Dickens
As nouns the difference between pearl and purl
is that pearl is a shelly concretion, usually rounded, and having a brilliant luster, with varying tints, found in the mantle, or between the mantle and shell, of certain bivalve mollusks, especially in the pearl oysters and river mussels, and sometimes in certain univalves. It is usually due to a secretion of shelly substance around some irritating foreign particle. Its substance is the same as nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Round lustrous pearls are used in jewellery while purl is a particular stitch in knitting; an inversion of stitches giving the work a ribbed or waved appearance.As verbs the difference between pearl and purl
is that pearl is to set or adorn with pearls, or with mother-of-pearl. Used also figuratively while purl is to decorate with fringe or embroidered edge.As a proper noun Pearl
is {{given name|female|from=English}} from the English noun pearl.pearl
English
(wikipedia pearl)Noun
(en noun)- I see thee compassed with thy kingdom's pearl .
- Hugh helped himself to bacon. "My dear fellow, she can think what she likes so long as she continues to grill bacon like this. Your wife is a treasure, James—a pearl amongst women; and you can tell her so with my love."
- (Milton)
Verb
(en verb)- Used a pointed tip today and learned why I kept pearling with my round tipped board. Round noses like to dig into the water, causing frustrating wipeouts.
Derived terms
(Terms derived from the noun "pearl") * cultured pearl * mabe pearl * mother-of-pearl * pearl ash * pearl diver * pearl barley * pearl cotton * pearl essence * pearl gray * pearl millet * pearl necklace * pearl of wisdom * pearl onion * pearl oyster * perlemoen * pearler * pearlescent * pearling * pearly * pearly king * pearly nautilus * pearly queen * pearly whites * seed pearl * sulfur pearlAnagrams
*purl
English
Etymology 1
Etymology uncertain; apparently related to Scots and dialect pirl ("twist, ripple, whirl, spin"), and possibly to Older Scots pyrl ("thrust or poke at"). Compare Venetian pirlo , an embellishment where the woven threads are twisted together. May be unrelated to purfle, though the meanings are similar.Noun
(en noun)- A triumphant chariot made of carnation velvet, enriched with purl and pearl.
Verb
(en verb)- Needlework purled with gold.
- Knit one, purl two.
Etymology 2
from (etyl)Verb
(en verb)- The huntsman was purled from his horse.
Etymology 3
From (etyl)Verb
(en verb)- Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, / Louder and louder purl the falling rills.
- thin winding breath which purled up to the sky
Noun
(en noun)- Whose stream an easy breath doth seem to blow, / Which on the sparkling gravel runs in purles , / As though the waves had been of silver curls.
- the purl of a brook
Etymology 4
Possibly from the pearl-like appearance caused by bubbles on the surface of the liquid.Noun
(-)- A double mug of purle .
- Drank a glass of purl to recover appetite.
- Drinking hot purl , and smoking pipes.