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Persistent vs Stead - What's the difference?

persistent | stead |

As an adjective persistent

is obstinately refusing to give up or let go.

As a noun stead is

(label) a place, or spot, in general.

As a verb stead is

to help; to support; to benefit; to assist.

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

    * ----

    stead

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (label) A place, or spot, in general.
  • *1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faery Queene , II:
  • *:For he ne wonneth in one certaine stead , / But restlesse walketh all the world around.
  • (label) A place where a person normally rests; a seat.
  • *1633 , P. Fletcher, Purple Island :
  • *:There now the hart, fearlesse of greyhound, feeds, / And loving pelican in safety breeds; / There shrieking satyres fill the people's emptie steads .
  • (label) A specific place or point on a body or other surface.
  • *, Bk.VII:
  • *:Thus they fought two houres& in many stedys they were wounded.
  • (label) An inhabited place; a settlement, city, town etc.
  • (label) An estate, a property with its grounds; a farm.
  • *1889 , H. Rider Haggard, Allan's Wife :
  • *:But of course I could not do this by myself, so I took a Hottentot—a very clever man when he was not drunk—who lived on the stead , into my confidence.
  • (label) The frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead.
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:The genial bed / Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead .
  • *1818 , Jane Austen, Persuasion :
  • *:She was so wretched and so vehement, complained so much of injustice in being expected to go away instead of Anne; Anne, who was nothing to Louisa, while she was her sister, and had the best right to stay in Henrietta's stead !
  • *2011 , "Kin selection", The Economist , 31 March:
  • *:Had Daniel Ortega not got himself illegally on to this year’s ballot to seek a third term, his wife might have run in his stead .
  • Figuratively, an emotional or circumstantial "place" having specified advantages, qualities etc. (now only in phrases).
  • *2010 , Dan van der Vat, The Guardian , 19 September:
  • *:Though small and delicate-looking, she gave an impression of intense earnestness and latent toughness, qualities that stood her in good stead when she dared to challenge the most intrusive communist society in eastern Europe.
  • Derived terms

    * bedstead * homestead * in good stead * in one's stead * instead * sunstead * workstead

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To help; to support; to benefit; to assist.
  • * 1610 , , act 1 scene 2
  • Some food we had and some fresh water that / A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, / Out of his charity,—who being then appointed / Master of this design,—did give us, with / Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, / Which since have steaded much: [...]
  • To fill place of.
  • Anagrams

    * (l), (l), (l), (l), (l)