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Shape vs Size - What's the difference?

shape | size |

In transitive terms the difference between shape and size

is that shape is to give something a shape and definition while size is to apply glue or other primer to a surface which is to be painted.

In obsolete terms the difference between shape and size

is that shape is to imagine; to conceive while size is a regulation, piece of ordinance.

shape

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The status or condition of something
  • The used bookshop wouldn't offer much due to the poor shape of the book.
  • Condition of personal health, especially muscular health.
  • The vet checked to see what kind of shape the animal was in.
    We exercise to keep in good physical shape .
  • The appearance of something, especially its outline.
  • He cut a square shape out of the cake.
  • A figure with unspecified appearance; especially a geometric figure.
  • What shape shall we use for the cookies? Stars, circles, or diamonds?
  • Form; formation.
  • * 2006 , Berdj Kenadjian, Martin Zakarian, From Darkness to Light :
  • What if God's plans and actions do mold the shape of human events?
  • (iron manufacture) A rolled or hammered piece, such as a bar, beam, angle iron, etc., having a cross section different from merchant bar.
  • (iron manufacture) A piece which has been roughly forged nearly to the form it will receive when completely forged or fitted.
  • A mould for making jelly, blancmange etc., or a piece of such food formed moulded into a particular shape.
  • *1918 , (Rebecca West), The Return of the Soldier , Virago 2014, p. 74:
  • *:‘And if I'm late for supper there's a dish of macaroni cheese you must put in the oven and a tin of tomatoes to eat with it. And there's a little rhubarb and shape .’
  • Hyponyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * contest shape * * in no shape to * * in shape * out of shape * shapeless * shapely * shapesmith * shape-shifter * shape-shifting * shipshape * take shape * the shape of things to come * whip into shape

    See also

    *

    Verb

  • To give something a shape and definition.
  • * 1932 , The American Scholar , page 227, United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa
  • The professor never pretended to the academic prerogative of forcing his students into his own channels of reasoning; he entered into and helped shape the discussion but above all he made his men learn to think for themselves and rely upon their own intellectual judgments.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}
  • To form or manipulate something into a certain shape.
  • * Prior
  • Grace shaped her limbs, and beauty decked her face.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 29, author=Mark Vesty, work=BBC
  • , title= Wigan 2-2 Arsenal , passage=Bendtner's goal-bound shot was well saved by goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi but fell to Arsahvin on the edge of the area and the Russian swivelled, shaped his body and angled a sumptuous volley into the corner. }}
  • (of a country, person, etc) To give influence to.
  • To suit; to be adjusted or conformable.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) To imagine; to conceive.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Oft my jealousy / Shapes faults that are not.

    Synonyms

    * (give shape) form, mold

    Derived terms

    * beshape * foreshape * forshape * misshape * overshape * shape up

    Anagrams

    * * * 1000 English basic words

    size

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) ).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete, outside, dialects) An assize.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, page 560:
  • I know you would have women above the law, but it is all a lye; I heard his lordship say at size , that no one is above the law.
  • (obsolete) A regulation determining the amount of money paid in fees, taxes etc.
  • (obsolete) A fixed standard for the magnitude, quality, quantity etc. of goods, especially food and drink.
  • * Shakespeare
  • to scant my sizes
  • The dimensions or magnitude of a thing; how big something is.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].}}
  • (obsolete) A regulation, piece of ordinance.
  • A specific set of dimensions for a manufactured article, especially clothing.
  • (graph theory) A number of edges in a graph.
  • (figurative, dated) Degree of rank, ability, character, etc.
  • * L'Estrange
  • men of a less size and quality
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • the middling or lower size of people
  • An instrument consisting of a number of perforated gauges fastened together at one end by a rivet, used for measuring the size of pearls.
  • (Knight)
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (siz)
  • To adjust the size of; to make a certain size.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • a statute to size weights, and measures
  • To classify or arrange by size.
  • # (military) To take the height of men, in order to place them in the ranks according to their stature.
  • # (mining) To sift (pieces of ore or metal) in order to separate the finer from the coarser parts.
  • (colloquial) To approximate the dimensions, estimate the size of.
  • To take a greater size; to increase in size.
  • * John Donne
  • Our desires give them fashion, and so, / As they wax lesser, fall, as they size , grow.
  • (UK, Cambridge University, obsolete) To order food or drink from the buttery; hence, to enter a score, as upon the buttery book.
  • (obsolete) To swell; to increase the bulk of.
  • (Beaumont and Fletcher)

    Etymology 2

    Old Italian , a glue used by painters, shortened from (assisa), from (assiso), to make to sit, to seat, to place.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thin, weak glue used as primer for paper or canvas intended to be painted upon.
  • Wallpaper paste.
  • The thickened crust on coagulated blood.
  • Any viscous substance, such as gilder's varnish.
  • Verb

    (siz)
  • To apply glue or other primer to a surface which is to be painted.