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Pose vs Wreak - What's the difference?

pose | wreak |

As an adjective pose

is (heraldry|of a beast) standing still, with all the feet on the ground.

As a verb wreak is

to cause, inflict or let out, especially if causing harm or injury.

As a noun wreak is

(archaic|literary) revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.

pose

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) pose, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) common cold, head cold; catarrh
  • * 1586 , W. Harrison
  • Now have we many chimnies, and yet our tenderlings complain of rheums, catarrhs, and poses .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) posen, from (etyl) ; influenced by (etyl) ponere.

    Verb

    (pos)
  • To place in an attitude or fixed position, for the sake of effect.
  • To pose a model for a picture.
  • Ask; set (a test, quiz, riddle, etc.).
  • To constitute (a danger, a threat, a risk, etc.).
  • * 2010 , Noam Chomsky, The Iranian threat , Z Magazine, vol 23, number 7:
  • Rather, they are concerned with the threat Iran poses to the region and the world.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=September 2 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Bulgaria 0-3 England , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Rooney's United team-mate Chris Smalling was given his debut at right-back and was able to adjust to the international stage in relatively relaxed fashion as Bulgaria barely posed a threat of any consequence.}}
  • * 2014 , Ian Black, " Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian , 27 November 2014:
  • The threat the most radical of them pose is evidently far greater at home than abroad: in one characteristically slick and chilling Isis video – entitled “a message to the Jordanian tyrant” – a smiling, long-haired young man in black pats the explosive belt round his waist as he burns his passport and his fellow fighters praise the memory of Zarqawi, who was killed in Iraq in 2006.
  • Assume or maintain a pose; strike an attitude.
  • * Thackeray
  • He posed before her as a hero.
  • (obsolete) To interrogate; to question.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • She posed him and sifted him.
  • (obsolete) To question with a view to puzzling; to embarrass by questioning or scrutiny; to bring to a stand.
  • * Barrow
  • A question wherewith a learned Pharisee thought to pose and puzzle him.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Position, posture, arrangement (especially of the human body).
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway,
  • Affectation.
  • Derived terms
    * posable

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) posen, a combination of aphetic forms of (etyl) aposen and opposen. More at appose, oppose.

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (pos)
  • (obsolete) To ask (someone) questions; to interrogate.
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Luke II:
  • And hit fortuned that after .iii. dayes, they founde hym in the temple sittinge in the middes of the doctours, both hearynge them, and posinge them.
  • to puzzle, non-plus, or embarrass with difficult questions.
  • To perplex or confuse (someone).
  • Derived terms
    * poser

    wreak

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) wrecan, from (etyl) ; cognate via PIE with Latin urgere (English urge), and distantly cognate to English wreck.

    Verb

  • To cause, inflict or let out, especially if causing harm or injury.
  • The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.
    She wreaked her anger on his car.
  • * Macaulay
  • Now was the time to be avenged on his old enemy, to wreak a grudge of seventeen years.
  • (archaic) To inflict or take vengeance on.
  • * 1874 ,
  • ''their woe
    ''Broods maddening inwardly and scorns to wreak
    ''Itself abroad;
  • * 1856-1885
  • Kill the foul thief, and wreak me for my son.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1917 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=A Princess of Mars , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=At heart they hate their horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for everything they have not, … }}
  • (archaic) To take vengeance for.
  • * Fairfax
  • Come wreak his loss, whom bootless ye complain.
    Usage notes
    The verb wreak'' is generally used in the form “wreak ''damage or harm of some sort'' (on ''something )”, and is often used in the set phrase wreak havoc, though “wreak damage”, “wreak destruction”, and “wreak revenge” are also common. Not to be confused with wreck, with similar meaning of destruction and similar etymological roots; common confusion in misspelling wreck havoc. It has become common to use wrought, the original past tense and participle for work, as the past tense and past participle for wreak'', as in ''wrought havoc'' (i.e. ''worked havoc'' for ''wreaked havoc''), due both to the fact that the weak form ''worked'' has edged out ''wrought'' from its former role almost entirely (except as an adjective referring usually to hand-worked metal goods), and via confusion from the ''wr-'' beginning both ''wreak'' and ''wrought , and probably by analogy with seek).
    Derived terms
    * wreak havoc

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) wreke, wrake, Northern Middle English variants of wreche, influenced later by Etymology 1, above. Compare (etyl) wraak.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic, literary) Revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.
  • * 1903 , George Chapman, Richard Herne Shepherd, Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Works of George Chapman :
  • However, no thought touch'd Minerva's mind, That any one should escape his wreak design'd.
  • * 2003 , John Foxe, John Cumming, Book of Martyrs and the Acts and Monuments of the Church :
  • For three causes Duke William entered this land to subdue Harold. One was, for that it was to him given by King Edward his nephew. The second was, to take wreak for the cruel murder of his nephew Alfred, King Edward's brother, and of the Normans, which deed he ascribed chiefly to Harold.
  • * 2006 , The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night - Volume 2 - Page 188:
  • Would that before my death I might but see my son The empery in my stead over the people hold And rush upon his foes and take on them his wreak , At push of sword and pike, in fury uncontrolled.
  • (archaic, literary) Punishment; retribution; payback.
  • * 1885': Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I; take her '''wreak on me this moment — Sir Richard Burton, ''The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night , Night 19
  • References