Spare vs Simple - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between spare and simple

is that spare is scanty; not abundant or plentiful while simple is uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added.

As nouns the difference between spare and simple

is that spare is the act of sparing; moderation; restraint while simple is (medicine) a preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.

As verbs the difference between spare and simple

is that spare is to show mercy while simple is (transitive|intransitive|archaic) to gather simples, ie, medicinal herbs.

spare

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) spare, spar, from (etyl) ‘thick’).

Adjective

(er)

scanty; not abundant or plentiful.

a spare diet

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=May 24 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3 , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=Jones’ sad eyes betray a pervasive pain his purposefully spare dialogue only hints at, while the perfectly cast Brolin conveys hints of playfulness and warmth while staying true to the craggy stoicism at the character’s core. }}

sparing; frugal; parsimonious; chary.

* Carew

He was spare , but discreet of speech.

* {{quote-news, year=2009, date=April 12, author=Phil Patton, title=At VW, the Italian Accent Gets Stronger, work=New York Times citation

, passage=Under Hartmut Warkuss, its design director until 2003, Volkswagen styling celebrated its Teutonic origins and the spare modernist tradition expressed in Braun radios and coffee makers, reference points for the neomodern simplicity of the iPod. }}

Being over and above what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous.

I have no spare time.

* Spenser

if that no spare clothes he had to give

Held in reserve, to be used in an emergency.

a spare''' anchor; a '''spare bed or room

lean; wanting flesh; meager; thin; gaunt.

* Shakespeare

O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones.

(obsolete, UK, dialect) slow

(Grose)

Derived terms

* go spare * spare part * spare time * spare tire * spare tyre * spare wheel

Noun

(en noun)

The act of sparing; moderation; restraint.

* Holland

Killing for sacrifice, without any spare .

Parsimony; frugal use.

* Spenser

Poured out their plenty without spite or spare .

An opening in a petticoat or gown; a placket.

That which has not been used or expended.

A spare part, especially a spare tire.

(bowling) The right of bowling again at a full set of pins, after having knocked all the pins down in less than three bowls. If all the pins are knocked down in one bowl it is a double spare; in two bowls, a single spare.

(bowling) The act of knocking down all remaining pins in second ball of a frame; this entitles the pins knocked down on the next ball to be added to the score for that frame.

Etymology 2

From (etyl) sparen, sparien, from (etyl) .

Verb

(spar)

To show mercy.

# To desist; to stop; to refrain.

# To refrain from inflicting harm; to use mercy or forbearance.

# To preserve from danger or punishment; to forbear to punish, injure, or harm; to show mercy.

#* Bible, (w) vi. 34

He will not spare in the day of vengeance.

#* 1883 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island)

Kill me, if you please, or spare me.

#* {{quote-news, date=21 August 2012, first=Ed, last=Pilkington, newspaper=The Guardian

, title= Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die? , passage=Reggie Clemons has one last chance to save his life. After 19 years on death row in Missouri for the murder of two young women, he has been granted a final opportunity to persuade a judge that he should be spared execution by lethal injection.}}

To keep.

# To be frugal; not to be profuse; to live frugally; to be parsimonious.

#* (rfdate) (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

I, who at some times spend, at others spare , / Divided between carelessness and care.

# To keep to oneself; to forbear to impart or give.

#* (rfdate) (John Milton)

[Thou] thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare .

#* (rfdate) Bible, Proverbs xvii. 27

He that hath knowledge, spareth his words.

# (transitive)} To save or gain, as by frugality; to reserve, as from some occupation, use, or duty.

#* (rfdate) (Knolles)

All the time he could spare from the necessary cares of his weighty charge, he bestowed on serving of God.

(to give up) To deprive oneself of, as by being frugal; to do without; to dispense with; to give up; to part with.

* (rfdate) (Roscommon)

Where angry Jove did never spare / One breath of kind and temperate air.

* (rfdate) (Shakespeare)

I could have better spared a better man.

* , chapter=22

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.

Anagrams

* * * * * * * * * * * * ----

simple

English

Adjective

(er)

Uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added.

*:“[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?”

*2001 , Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography , Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0-521-78512-X), page 167,

*:There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.

Without ornamentation; plain.

Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.

* (ca.1576-1634)

*:Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.

*(Lord Byron) (1788-1824)

*:Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?

*(Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1803-1882)

*:To be simple is to be great.

Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.

Trivial; insignificant.

*1485 , (Thomas Malory), (w, Le Morte d'Arthur) , Book X:

*:‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’

Feeble-minded; foolish.

Structurally uncomplicated.

#(lb) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.

#(lb) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.

#(lb) Not compound, but possibly lobed.

#(lb) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.

#(lb) Homogenous.

(lb) Mere; not other than; being only.

*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

*:A medicinewhose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.

Synonyms

* (consisting of a single part or aspect) onefold * (having few parts or features) plain * See also

Antonyms

* (having few parts or features) complex, compound, complicated * (uncomplicated) subtle

Derived terms

* fee simple * future simple * oversimple * past simple * plain and simple * present simple * pure and simple * simple beam * simple connectivity * simple contract * simple dislocation * simple equation * simple extension * simple eye * simple fraction * simple fracture * simple fruit * simple function * simple future * simple group * simple harmonic motion * simple-hearted * simple interest * simple leaf * simple linear regression * simple machine * simple mastectomy * simple microscope * simple-minded * simple past * simple pendulum * simple pistil * simple pole * simple present * simple protein * simple regression * simple sentence * Simple Simon * simple sugar * simple syrup * simple time * simple trust * simplehead * simpleness * simpless * simplex * simply * single * simplicity * simpleton

Noun

(en noun)

(medicine) A preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.

*, II.37:

*:I know there are some simples , which in operation are moistening and some drying.

*Sir W. Temple

*:What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.

(obsolete) A term for a physician, derived from the medicinal term above.

(logic) A simple or atomic proposition.

(obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.

*Shakespeare

*:compounded of many simples

(weaving) A drawloom.

(weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.

(Roman Catholic) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.

Verb

(simpl)

(transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, ie, medicinal herbs.

Derived terms

* simpler * simplist * simplify

Statistics

Anagrams

* 1000 English basic words ----