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Hide vs Seek - What's the difference?

hide | seek |

In transitive terms the difference between hide and seek

is that hide is to put (something) in a place where it will be harder to discover or out of sight while seek is to try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.

As a noun hide

is mainly British A covered structure from which hunters, birdwatchers, etc can observe animals without scaring them.

hide

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) hiden, huden, from (etyl) . Related to (l) and (l).

Verb

  • To put (something) in a place where it will be harder to discover or out of sight.
  • * 1856 , (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
  • The blind man, whom he had not been able to cure with the pomade, had gone back to the hill of Bois-Guillaume, where he told the travellers of the vain attempt of the druggist, to such an extent, that Homais when he went to town hid himself behind the curtains of the "Hirondelle" to avoid meeting him.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Timothy Garton Ash)
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli , passage=Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.}}
  • To put oneself in a place where one will be harder to find or out of sight.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= William E. Conner
  • , title= An Acoustic Arms Race , volume=101, issue=3, page=206-7, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Nonetheless, some insect prey take advantage of clutter by hiding in it. Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.}}
    Synonyms
    * (transitive) conceal, hide away, secrete * (intransitive) go undercover, hide away, hide oneself, hide out, lie low
    Antonyms
    * (transitive) disclose, expose, reveal, show, uncover * (intransitive) reveal oneself, show oneself
    Derived terms
    * hide and seek / hide-and-seek * hideaway * hideout * hide one's light under a bushel * hider * one can run but one can't hide

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable) (mainly British) A covered structure from which hunters, birdwatchers, etc can observe animals without scaring them.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , 'to cover'. More at (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable) The skin of an animal.
  • (obsolete, or, derogatory) The human skin.
  • * Shakespeare
  • O tiger's heart, wrapped in a woman's hide !
  • (uncountable, informal, usually, US) One's own life or personal safety, especially when in peril.
  • * 1957 , (Ayn Rand), Francisco d'Anconia's speech in (Atlas Shrugged):
  • The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of money and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide —as I think he will.
    Synonyms
    * (animal skin) pelt, skin * (land measure) carucate
    Derived terms
    * cowhide * damn your hide * have someone's hide * rawhide * tan someone's hide

    Verb

  • To beat with a whip made from hide.
  • * 1891 , Robert Weir, J. Moray Brown, Riding
  • He ran last week, and he was hided , and he was out on the day before yesterday, and here he is once more, and he knows he's got to run and to be hided again.

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) hide, from (etyl) . More at (l), (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A medieval land measure equal to the amount of land that could sustain one free family; usually 100 acres. Forty hides equalled a barony.
  • seek

    English

    Verb

  • (lb) To try to find, to look for, to search.
  • :
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
  • (label) To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
  • :
  • *Bible, (w) xi. 16
  • *:Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.
  • *1960 , (Lobsang Rampa), :
  • *:“My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.
  • (lb) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
  • :
  • *1880 , , :
  • *:But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.
  • *1886 , Constantine Popoff, translation of (Leo Tolstoy)'s :
  • *:I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
  • To go, move, travel (in a given direction).
  • :
  • *, Bk.V:
  • *:Ryght so he sought towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes
  • (lb) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.
  • *:
  • *:Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
  • *1726 (tr.), (Alexander Pope), ''(Homer)'s (Odyssey), Book II, line 33
  • *:Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains
  • Quotations

    Synonyms

    * look for * search

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)