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Pigeonhole vs Size - What's the difference?

pigeonhole | size | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between pigeonhole and size

is that pigeonhole is a nook in a desk for holding papers while size is an assize.

As verbs the difference between pigeonhole and size

is that pigeonhole is to categorize; especially to limit or be limited to a particular category, role, etc while size is to adjust the size of; to make a certain size.

pigeonhole

Alternative forms

* pigeon-hole * pigeon hole

Noun

(en noun)
  • A nook in a desk for holding papers.
  • One of an array of compartments for sorting post, messages etc. at an office, or college (for example).
  • Fred was disappointed at the lack of post in his pigeonhole .
  • A hole, or roosting place for pigeons.
  • Ancient Roman system of storage, used in libraries for keeping scrolls
  • Verb

    (pigeonhol)
  • To categorize; especially to limit or be limited to a particular category, role, etc.
  • Fred was tired of being pigeonholed as a computer geek.
  • * 1902 ,
  • He prided himself on his largeness when he granted that there were three kinds of women... Not that he pigeon-holed Frona according to his inherited definitions.
  • To put aside, to not act on (proposals, suggestions, advice).
  • * 1910 , Angus Hamilton, Herbert Henry Austin, Masatake Terauchi, Korea: Its History, Its People, and Its Commerce , page 294
  • These laws were not carried into effect: they were pigeon-holed .
  • * 1917 , , November 1917 issue, The Looking Glass: Election laws in Southern California , page 29
  • [...] vociferously declared that they had the evidence. But no one prosecutes. No one swears out a warrant. The evidence is pigeonholed .
  • * 2008 , Edward Sidlow, Beth Henschen, America at Odds , page 251
  • Alternatively, the chairperson may decide to put the bill aside and ignore it. Most bills that are pigeonholed in this manner receive no further action.

    Synonyms

    * (not act on) shelve, table

    See also

    * cubbyhole

    size

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) ).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete, outside, dialects) An assize.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, page 560:
  • I know you would have women above the law, but it is all a lye; I heard his lordship say at size , that no one is above the law.
  • (obsolete) A regulation determining the amount of money paid in fees, taxes etc.
  • (obsolete) A fixed standard for the magnitude, quality, quantity etc. of goods, especially food and drink.
  • * Shakespeare
  • to scant my sizes
  • The dimensions or magnitude of a thing; how big something is.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}
  • (obsolete) A regulation, piece of ordinance.
  • A specific set of dimensions for a manufactured article, especially clothing.
  • (graph theory) A number of edges in a graph.
  • (figurative, dated) Degree of rank, ability, character, etc.
  • * L'Estrange
  • men of a less size and quality
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • the middling or lower size of people
  • An instrument consisting of a number of perforated gauges fastened together at one end by a rivet, used for measuring the size of pearls.
  • (Knight)
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (siz)
  • To adjust the size of; to make a certain size.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • a statute to size weights, and measures
  • To classify or arrange by size.
  • # (military) To take the height of men, in order to place them in the ranks according to their stature.
  • # (mining) To sift (pieces of ore or metal) in order to separate the finer from the coarser parts.
  • (colloquial) To approximate the dimensions, estimate the size of.
  • To take a greater size; to increase in size.
  • * John Donne
  • Our desires give them fashion, and so, / As they wax lesser, fall, as they size , grow.
  • (UK, Cambridge University, obsolete) To order food or drink from the buttery; hence, to enter a score, as upon the buttery book.
  • (obsolete) To swell; to increase the bulk of.
  • (Beaumont and Fletcher)

    Etymology 2

    Old Italian , a glue used by painters, shortened from (assisa), from (assiso), to make to sit, to seat, to place.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thin, weak glue used as primer for paper or canvas intended to be painted upon.
  • Wallpaper paste.
  • The thickened crust on coagulated blood.
  • Any viscous substance, such as gilder's varnish.
  • Verb

    (siz)
  • To apply glue or other primer to a surface which is to be painted.