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Persistent vs Last - What's the difference?

persistent | last |

As adjectives the difference between persistent and last

is that persistent is obstinately refusing to give up or let go while last is final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind.

As a determiner last is

the (one) immediately before the present.

As an adverb last is

most recently.

As a verb last is

to perform, carry out.

As a noun last is

a tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes.

persistent

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Obstinately refusing to give up or let go.
  • She has had a persistent cough for weeks.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=November 10 , author=Jeremy Wilson , title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , work=Telegraph citation , page= , passage=The most persistent tormentor was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s corresponding fixture in Iceland. His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott.}}
  • Insistently repetitive.
  • There was a persistent knocking on the door.
  • Indefinitely continuous.
  • There have been persistent rumours for years.
  • (botany) Lasting past maturity without falling off.
  • Pine cones have persistent scales.
  • *
  • The Jubulaceae have a leaf whose lobule, usually transformed into a water-sac, is normally very narrowly attached to the stem and to the dorsal lobe; indeed some Frullania'' taxa reproduce vegetatively by dropping the dorsal lobes, but not the lobules, and ''Neohattoria has caducous lobules but persistent lobes.
  • (computing) About some data or data structures: existing after the execution of the program. Remaining in existence past the lifetime of the program that creates it.
  • Once written to a disk file the data becomes persistent and it will still be there tomorrow when we run the next program.
    This way transient value becomes persistent .
  • (mathematics) Describing a fractal process that has a positive Brown function
  • (mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) non-transient.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    last

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), (m), syncopated variant of (m), from (etyl) latost, (m), , whence English (l).

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind.
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.}}
  • Most recent, latest, last so far.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place
  • , date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year.}}
  • Farthest of all from a given quality, character, or condition; most unlikely, or least preferable.
  • He is the last person to be accused of theft.
  • Being the only one remaining of its class.
  • Supreme; highest in degree; utmost.
  • * R. Hall
  • Contending for principles of the last importance.
  • Lowest in rank or degree.
  • the last prize
    (Alexander Pope)
    Synonyms
    * (final) at the end, caboose, final, tail end, terminal, ultimate * (most recent) latest, most recent
    Derived terms
    * last word * nice guys finish last

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • The (one) immediately before the present.
  • Last night the moon was full.
    We went there last year.
    Last Tuesday was Hallowe'en.
    Last time we talked about this was in January.
  • (of a, day of the week) Closest to seven days (one week) ago.
  • It's Wednesday, and the party was last Tuesday; that is, not yesterday, but eight days ago.
    Usage notes
    * (both senses) This cannot be used in past or future tense to refer to a time immediately before the subject matter. For example, one does not say or the like.

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Most recently.
  • When we last met, he was based in Toronto.
  • * Shakespeare
  • How long is't now since last yourself and I / Were in a mask?
  • (sequence) after everything else; finally
  • I'll go last .
    last but not least
  • * Dryden
  • Pleased with his idol, he commends, admires, / Adores; and, last , the thing adored desires.
    Synonyms
    * finally * lastly

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To perform, carry out.
  • (label) To endure, continue over time.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.
  • (label) To hold out, continue undefeated or entire.
  • :
  • Synonyms
    * continue * endure * survive
    Antonyms
    * disintegrate * dissipate * fall apart * wear out

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia last) (en noun)
  • a tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes
  • * 2006, Newman, Cathy, Every Shoe Tells a Story , National Geographic (September, 2006), 83,
  • How is an in-your-face black leather thigh-high lace-up boot with a four-inch spike heel like a man's black calf lace-up oxford? They are both made on a last , the wood or plastic foot-shaped form that leather is stretched over and shaped to make a shoe.
    Derived terms
    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To shape with a last; to fasten or fit to a last; to place smoothly on a last.
  • to last a boot

    Etymology 4

    From (etyl) last, from (etyl) , (etyl) last, (etyl) Last, (etyl) last, (etyl) lest.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A burden; load; a cargo; freight.
  • (obsolete) A measure of weight or quantity, varying in designation depending on the goods concerned.
  • * 1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 114:
  • Now we so quietly followed our businesse, that in three moneths wee made three or foure Last of Tarre, Pitch, and Sope ashes [...].
  • * 1866 , James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England , Volume 1, page 169,
  • The last of wool is twelve sacks.
  • (obsolete) An old English (and Dutch) measure of the carrying capacity of a ship, equal to two tons.
  • * 1942 (1601) , T D Mutch, The First Discovery of Australia , page 14,
  • The tonnage of the of Harmensz's fleet is given as 25 and 30 lasten .
  • A load of some commodity with reference to its weight and commercial value.
  • Statistics

    *