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Ravel vs Lace - What's the difference?

ravel | lace | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between ravel and lace

is that ravel is a snarl, complication while lace is a light fabric containing patterns of holes, usually built up from a single thread.W

As verbs the difference between ravel and lace

is that ravel is to tangle; entangle; entwine confusedly, become snarled; thus to involve; perplex; confuse while lace is to fasten (something) with laces.

ravel

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • a snarl, complication
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1927 , year_published=2009 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=DH Lawrence , title=Mornings in Mexico , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=Project Gutenberg Australia , isbn= , page= , passage=The savannah valley is shadeless, spotted only with the thorny ravel of mesquite bushes. }}

    Verb

  • To tangle; entangle; entwine confusedly, become snarled; thus to involve; perplex; confuse.
  • * Waller
    • What glory's due to him that could divide / Such ravelled interests?
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • The faith of very many men seems a duty so weak and indifferent, is so often untwisted by violence, or ravelled and entangled in weak discourses!
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1871 , year_published=2011 , edition=Digitized , editor= , author= , title=Popular Science News, Volumes 5-7 , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher= , isbn= , page=61 , passage=… and in them are minute glands , which resemble ravelled tubes … }}
  • :* {{quote-web
    • , date=2011-09-10 , year= , first= , last= , author=Martha T. Moore , authorlink= , title=After 9/11, dinner gang raises funds to honor those lost , site=USA Today citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=2012-08-24 , passage=But the real work of the First Thursday Foundation is remembering, and its biggest gift is knitting back together lives raveled by loss. }}
  • To undo the intricacies of; to disentangle or clarify.
  • To pull apart (especially cloth or a seam); unravel.
  • (computing, programming) In the APL language, to reshape (a variable) into a vector.
  • * 1975 , Tse-yun Feng, Parallel processing: proceedings of the Sagamore Computer Conference
    • LOAD.S loads a sequence of scalars from the ravelled form of a matrix into successive AM elements.
  • * 1980 , Gijsbert van der Linden, APL 80: International Conference on APL, June 24-26, 1980
    • Ravelling is necessary because the execute function in the IBM implementation only accepts charactervectors as argument.

    Usage notes

    * The spellings ravelling and ravelled are more common in the UK than in the US.

    References

    * Century Dictionary, Vol. VI, Page 4976, ravel * Century Dictionary Supplement, Vol. XII, Page 1114, ravel * Online Etymology, ravel

    Anagrams

    * * * English contranyms

    lace

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A light fabric containing patterns of holes, usually built up from a single thread.(w)
  • * (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
    • Our English dames are much given to the wearing of costly laces .
  • * , title=The Mirror and the Lamp
    • , chapter=2 citation , passage=She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace , […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.}}
  • *
    • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […]  Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace , complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
  • (countable) A cord or ribbon passed through eyelets in a shoe or garment, pulled tight and tied to fasten the shoe or garment firmly.(w)
  • A snare or gin, especially one made of interwoven cords; a net.
  • * (Geoffrey Chaucer) (c.1343-1400)
    • Vulcanus had caught thee [Venus] in his lace .
    (Fairfax)
  • (slang, obsolete) Spirits added to coffee or another beverage.
    • (Addison)

    Synonyms

    * (cord) ** (for a shoe) shoelace ** (for a garment) tie

    Verb

    (lac)
  • (label) To fasten (something) with laces.
  • * (Matthew Prior) (1664-1721)
    • When Jenny's stays are newly laced .
  • (label) To add alcohol, poison, a drug or anything else potentially harmful to (food or drink).
  • (label) To interweave items. (lacing one's fingers together)
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet: or anon we shot into a clearing, with a colored glimpse of the lake and its curving shore far below us.}}
  • (label) To interweave the spokes of a bicycle wheel.
  • To beat; to lash; to make stripes on.
  • * (w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)
    • I'll lace your coat for ye.
  • To adorn with narrow strips or braids of some decorative material.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Derived terms

    * enlace * lace into * lace-up shoes / lace-ups * lacy

    Anagrams

    * ----