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Provide vs Apply - What's the difference?

provide | apply |

As verbs the difference between provide and apply

is that provide is to make a living; earn money for necessities while apply is to lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another);—with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body.

As an adjective apply is

an alternative spelling of lang=en.

provide

English

Verb

(provid)
  • To make a living; earn money for necessities.
  • It is difficult to provide for my family working on minimum wage.
  • To act to prepare for something.
  • To establish as a previous condition; to stipulate.
  • The contract provides that the work be well done.
    I'll lend you the money, provided that you pay it back by Monday.
  • To give what is needed or desired, especially basic needs.
  • Don't bother bringing equipment, as we will provide it.
    We aim to provide the local community with more green spaces.
  • To furnish (with), cause to be present.
  • * Arbuthnot
  • Rome was well provided with corn.
  • To make possible or attainable.
  • He provides us with an alternative option.
  • * Milton
  • Bring me berries, or such cooling fruit / As the kind, hospitable woods provide .
  • (obsolete, Latinism) To foresee.
  • (Ben Jonson)
  • To appoint to an ecclesiastical benefice before it is vacant. See provisor .
  • (Prescott)

    Derived terms

    * provider

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    apply

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) applier, ((etyl) appliquer), from (etyl) . See applicant, ply.

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another);—with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , author= , title=Translation of Virgil's Aeneid , passage=He said, and to the sword his throat applied . , year=1697}}
  • To put to use; to use or employ for a particular purpose, or in a particular case; to appropriate; to devote; as, to apply money to the payment of a debt.
  • To make use of, declare, or pronounce, as suitable, fitting, or relative; as, to apply the testimony to the case; to apply an epithet to a person.
  • * (rfdate) Milton,
  • Yet God at last To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied .
  • To fix closely; to engage and employ diligently, or with attention; to attach; to incline.
  • * 1611 , '', ''Proverbs 23:12,
  • Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
  • To betake; to address; to refer; generally used reflexively.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • sacred vows applied to grisly Pluto
  • * (rfdate) Johnson
  • I applied myself to him for help.
  • To submit oneself as a candidate (with the adposition "to" designating the recipient of the submission, and the adposition "for" designating the position).
  • I recently applied to the tavern for a job as a bartender.
    Most of the colleges she applied to were ones she thought she had a good chance of getting into.
    Many of them don't know it, but almost a third of the inmates are eligible to apply for parole or work-release programs.
  • To pertain or be relevant to a specified individual or group.
  • That rule only applies to foreigners.
  • (obsolete) To busy; to keep at work; to ply.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • She was skillful in applying his humours.
  • (obsolete) To visit.
  • * Chapman
  • His armour was so clear, / And he applied each place so fast, that like a lightning thrown / Out of the shield of Jupiter, in every eye he shone.
    (Webster 1913)

    Etymology 2

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • References

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    Anagrams

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