What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Receive vs Apply - What's the difference?

receive | apply |

As verbs the difference between receive and apply

is that receive is to take, as something that is offered, given, committed, sent, paid, etc; to accept; to be given something 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 a noun receive

is (telecommunications) an operation in which data is received.

As an adjective apply is

.

receive

English

Alternative forms

* (obsolete)

Verb

(receiv)
  • To take, as something that is offered, given, committed, sent, paid, etc.; to accept; to be given something.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:Our hearts receive your warnings.
  • *(John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • *:The idea of solidity we receive by our touch.
  • *(Bible), viii.64:
  • *:The brazen altar that was before the Lord was too little to receive the burnt offerings.
  • *, chapter=19
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= No hiding place , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.}}
  • To take possession of.
  • To act as a host for guests; to give admittance to; to permit to enter, as into one's house, presence, company, etc.
  • :
  • *(Bible), (w) xxviii.2:
  • *:They kindled a fire, and received us every one.
  • *
  • *:In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.
  • To suffer from (an injury).
  • :
  • To allow (a custom, tradition, etc.); to give credence or acceptance to.
  • *(Bible), (w) vii.4:
  • *:Many other things there be which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots.
  • (lb) To detect a signal from a transmitter.
  • (lb) To be in a position to take possession, or hit back the ball.
  • # To be in a position to hit back a service.
  • #(lb) To be in a position to catch a forward pass.
  • To accept into the mind; to understand.
  • *, I.57:
  • *:I cannot receive that manner, whereby we establish the continuance of our life.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (telecommunications) An operation in which data is received.
  • sends and receives

    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

    *

    Anagrams

    *