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.

Shallow vs Full - What's the difference?

shallow | full |

As adjectives the difference between shallow and full

is that shallow is having little depth; significantly less deep than wide while full is foul, rotten.

As a noun shallow

is a shallow portion of an otherwise deep body of water.

As a verb shallow

is to make or become less deep.

shallow

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Having little depth; significantly less deep than wide.
  • This crater is relatively shallow .
    Saute the onions in a shallow pan.
  • Extending not far downward.
  • The water is shallow here.
  • Concerned mainly with superficial matters.
  • It was a glamorous but shallow lifestyle.
  • Lacking interest or substance.
  • The acting is good, but the characters are shallow .
  • Not intellectually deep; not penetrating deeply; simple; not wise or knowing.
  • shallow learning
  • * Francis Bacon
  • The king was neither so shallow , nor so ill advertised, as not to perceive the intention of the French king.
  • (obsolete) Not deep in tone.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • the sound perfecter and not so shallow and jarring
  • (tennis) Not far forward, close to the net
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=June 28 , author=Jamie Jackson , title=Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Rosol spurned the chance to finish off a shallow second serve by spooning into the net, and a wild forehand took the set to 5-4, with the native of Prerov required to hold his serve for victory.}}

    Antonyms

    * deep

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A shallow portion of an otherwise deep body of water.
  • The ship ran aground in an unexpected shallow .
  • * Francis Bacon
  • A swift stream is not heard in the channel, but upon shallows of gravel.
  • * Dryden
  • dashed on the shallows of the moving sand
  • A fish, the rudd.
  • Usage notes

    * Usually used in the plural form.

    See also

    * shoal * sandbar * sandbank

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make or become less deep
  • * {{quote-journal, 2009, date=February 6, Andrew Z. Krug et al., Signature of the End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction in the Modern Biota, Science citation
  • , passage=The shallowing of Cenozoic age-frequency curves from tropics to poles thus appears to reflect the decreasing probability for genera to reach and remain established in progressively higher latitudes ( 9 ). }}

    Anagrams

    *

    full

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) full, from (etyl) . Germanic cognates include West Frisian fol, Low German vull, Dutch vol, German voll, Danish fuld, and Swedish and Norwegian .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Containing the maximum possible amount of that which can fit in the space available.
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage='Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.}}
  • Complete; with nothing omitted.
  • * {{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.
  • Total, entire.
  • (informal) Having eaten to satisfaction, having a "full" stomach; replete.
  • Of a garment, of a size that is ample, wide, or having ample folds or pleats to be comfortable.
  • Having depth and body; rich.
  • a full singing voice
  • (obsolete) Having the mind filled with ideas; stocked with knowledge; stored with information.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Reading maketh a full man.
  • Having the attention, thoughts, etc., absorbed in any matter, and the feelings more or less excited by it.
  • She's full of her latest project.
  • * John Locke
  • Everyone is full of the miracles done by cold baths on decayed and weak constitutions.
  • Filled with emotions.
  • * Lowell
  • The heart is so full that a drop overfills it.
  • (obsolete) Impregnated; made pregnant.
  • * Dryden
  • Ilia, the fair, full of Mars.
    Synonyms
    * (containing the maximum possible amount) abounding, brimful, bursting, chock-a-block, chock-full, full up, full to bursting, full to overflowing, jam full, jammed, jam-packed, laden, loaded, overflowing, packed, rammed, stuffed * (complete) complete, thorough * (total) entire, total * glutted, gorged, sated, satiate, satiated, satisfied, stuffed * (of a garment) baggy, big, large, loose, outsized, oversized, voluminous
    Antonyms
    * (containing the maximum possible amount) empty * (complete) incomplete * (total) partial * empty, hungry, starving * (of a garment) close-fitting, small, tight, tight-fitting
    Derived terms
    * full as a goog * full as a tick * full beam * fullblood, full-blood, full blood * full-blown * full-bodied * full-dress * full house * fully * full marks * full moon * full name * fullness * fullscale * full stop * to the full

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (lb) Quite; thoroughly; completely; exactly; entirely.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:master of a full poor cell
  • *(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • *:full in the centre of the sacred wood
  • *1819 , (John Keats), Otho the Great , Act IV, Scene I, verse 112
  • *:You know full well what makes me look so pale.
  • *(rfdate) (Dante Gabriel Rosetti), William Blake , lines 9-12
  • *:This cupboard/ this other one, / His true wife's charge, full oft to their abode / Yielded for daily bread the martyr's stone,
  • *1874 , , (The City of Dreadful Night) , IX
  • *:It is full strange to him who hears and feels, / When wandering there in some deserted street, / The booming and the jar of ponderous wheels,
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes..
  • Derived terms
    * full well

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) fulle, fylle, fille, from (etyl) fyllu, . More at fill.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Utmost measure or extent; highest state or degree; the state, position, or moment of fullness; fill.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The swan's-down feather, / That stands upon the swell at full of tide.
  • * Dryden
  • Sicilian tortures and the brazen bull, / Are emblems, rather than express the full / Of what he feels.
    I was fed to the full .
  • * 1911 , Berthold Auerbach, Bayard Taylor, The villa on the Rhine :
  • he had tasted their food, and found it so palatable that he had eaten his full before he knew it.
  • * 2008 , Jay Cassell, The Gigantic Book Of Hunting Stories :
  • Early next morning we were over at the elk carcass, and, as we expected, found that the bear had eaten his full at it during the night.
  • * 2010 , C. E. Morgan, All the Living: A Novel :
  • When he had eaten his full , they set to work again.
  • (of the moon) The phase of the moon when it is entire face is illuminated, full moon.
  • * 1765 , Francis Bacon, The works of Francis Bacon :
  • It is like, that the brain of man waxeth moister and fuller upon the full of the moon: [...]
  • * 1808 , (editor), Works , Volume VII: Practical Works, Revised edition, page 219,
  • This earthly moon, the Church, hath her fulls and wanings, and sometimes her eclipses, while the shadow of this sinful mass hides her beauty from the world.
  • (label) an aerialist maneuver consisting of a backflip in conjunction and simultaneous with a complete twist
  • Derived terms
    * at full, at the full * in full * to the full (freestyle skiing) * double full * lay-full * full-full * full-double full * double full-full * lay-full-full * full-full-full * lay-double full-full * full-double full-full

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (of the moon) To become full or wholly illuminated.
  • * 1888 September 20, " The Harvest Moon," New York Times (retrieved 10 April 2013):
  • The September moon fulls on the 20th at 24 minutes past midnight, and is called the harvest moon.
  • * 1905 , , The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation , ch. 4:
  • "By the black cave of Atropos, when the moon fulls , keep thy tryst!"
  • * 1918 , , The Story Of Waitstill Baxter , ch. 29:
  • "The moon fulls to-night, don't it?"

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) fullen, fulwen, from (etyl) fullian, .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To baptise.
  • Derived terms
    * fulling

    Etymology 4

    (etyl), from (etyl) fuller,

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing, to waulk, walk
  • Synonyms
    * to walk, waulk
    Derived terms
    * fuller * fuller's earth

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----