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.

Several vs Occupy - What's the difference?

several | occupy |

In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between several and occupy

is that several is (obsolete) an area of land in private ownership (as opposed to common land) while occupy is (obsolete) to use; to expend; to make use of.

As a determiner several

is separate, distinct; particular.

As an adverb several

is by itself; severally.

As a noun several

is (obsolete) an area of land in private ownership (as opposed to common land).

As a verb occupy is

(label) to take or use time.

several

English

Alternative forms

* severall (obsolete)

Determiner

(en determiner)
  • Separate, distinct; particular.
  • *, I.42:
  • He had a religion apart: a God severall unto himselfe, whom his subjects might no waies adore.
  • *, II.i.4.2:
  • So one thing may be good and bad to several parties, upon diverse occasions.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • * Dryden
  • Each several ship a victory did gain.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Each might his several province well command, / Would all but stoop to what they understand.
  • A number of different; various. (Now merged into later senses, below)
  • * 1610 , , act 3 sc.1
  • *:.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • habits and faculties, several , and to be distinguished
  • * Dryden
  • Four several armies to the field are led.
  • Consisting of a number more than two or three but not very many; diverse.
  • * 1784 , William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , preface:
  • The favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others ; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=14 citation , passage=Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.}}
  • * 2004 , The Guardian , 6 November:
  • Several people were killed and around 150 injured after a high-speed train hit a car on a level crossing and derailed tonight.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.}}

    Derived terms

    * several states * severally

    See also

    * sever

    Adverb

    (-)
  • By itself; severally.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
  • Every kind of thing is laid up several in barns or storehouses.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) An area of land in private ownership (as opposed to common land).
  • Each particular taken singly; an item; a detail; an individual. (rfex)
  • (archaic) An enclosed or separate place; enclosure. (rfex)
  • Statistics

    *

    occupy

    English

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (label) To take or use time.
  • # To fill time.
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.}}
  • # To possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the service of.
  • # To fill or hold (an official position or role).
  • # To hold the attention of.
  • (label) To take or use space.
  • # To fill space.
  • # To live or reside in.
  • #* (Washington Irving) (1783-1859)
  • The better apartments were already occupied .
  • #*
  • With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied ; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get
  • # (military) To have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a territory).
  • #* 1940 , in The China monthly review , volumes 94-95, page 370 [http://books.google.com/books?id=QqkTAAAAIAAJ&q=%22occupy+but+cannot+hold%22&dq=%22occupy+but+cannot+hold%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OB6HT4_zC4e68ASF1-jNCA&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA]:
  • The Japanese can occupy but cannot hold, and what they can hold they cannot hold long, was the opinion of General Pai Chung-hsi, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army,
  • #* 1975 , Esmé Cecil Wingfield-Stratford, King Charles and King Pym, 1637-1643 , page 330 [http://books.google.com/books?ei=ex2HT9-GK5D69gTJqNjdCA&id=VCwqAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22occupied+but+could+not+hold%22&q=%22occupied+but+could%22#search_anchor]:
  • Rupert, with his usual untamable energy, was scouring the country — but at first in the wrong direction, that of Aylesbury, another keypoint in the outer ring of Oxford defences, which he occupied but could not hold.
  • #* 1983 , Arthur Keppel-Jones, Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe, 1884-1902 , page 462:
  • One of the rebel marksmen, who had taken up position on a boulder, was knocked off it by the recoil of his weapon every time he fired. Again the attack achieved nothing. Positions were occupied , but could not be held.
  • #* 1991 , Werner Spies, John William Gabriel, Max Ernst collages: the invention of the surrealist universe , page 333:
  • Germany occupied France for three years while France struggled to make payments that were a condition of surrender.
  • #* 2006 , John Michael Francis, Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History , page 496:
  • Spain occupied , but could not populate, and its failure to expand Florida led Britain to consider the peninsula a logical extension of its colonial holdings.
  • # (surveying) To place the theodolite or total station at (a point).
  • (obsolete) To have sexual intercourse with.Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language , second edition, 1966.
  • * 1590s , (William Shakespeare), , II.iv
  • God's light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word 'occupy ;' which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted
  • * 1867 , (Robert Nares) A Glossary
  • OCCUPY, [sensu obsc.] To possess, or enjoy.
  • *:: These villains will make the word captain, as odious as the word occupy''. ''2 Hen. IV , ii, 4.
  • *:: Groyne, come of age, his state sold out of hand
  • *:: For 's whore; Groyne still doth occupy'' his land. ''B. Jons. Epigr. , 117.
  • *:: Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions, refuse proper and fit words, as occupy'', nature, and the like. ''Ibid., Discoveries , vol. vii, p. 119.
  • It is so used also in Rowley's New Wonder, Anc. Dr., v, 278.
  • (obsolete) To do business in; to busy oneself with.
  • * Bible, (w) xxvii. 9
  • All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.
  • * 1551 , (in Latin), 1516
  • not able to occupy their old crafts
  • (obsolete) To use; to expend; to make use of.
  • * Bible, (w) xxxviii. 24
  • all the gold that was occupied for the work
  • * 1551 , (in Latin), 1516
  • They occupy not money themselves.

    Synonyms

    * (to possess or use the time or capacity of) employ, busy

    Derived terms

    * occupier * occupation

    See also

    *

    References

    *