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Spec vs Dummy - What's the difference?

spec | dummy |

As nouns the difference between spec and dummy

is that spec is (colloquial) short form of specification while dummy is a silent person; a person who does not talk.

As verbs the difference between spec and dummy

is that spec is to specify, especially in a formal specification document while dummy is to make a mock-up or prototype version of something, without some or all off its intended functionality.

spec

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (colloquial) short form of specification
  • (colloquial) short form of speculation
  • short form of specialization
  • short form of special
  • (dialect) a special place (for hiding or viewing)
  • (Australia, Australian rules football, informal) A spectacular mark (catch) in Australian rules football.

    • Derived terms

    * on spec

    Verb

  • To specify, especially in a formal specification document.
  • * 1999 , George Buehler, The Troller Yacht Book
    • I've found some professional yards want everything specced out completely while a home builder will just do things the way he wants.
  • * 1995 , Fred Moody, I Sing the Body Electronic: A Year with Microsoft on the Multimedia Frontier
    • Could they still include the kinds of playful animations Ballinger had specced now that the scenes were more realistic-looking and less whimsical?

    Anagrams

    * * *

    dummy

    English

    Noun

    (dummies)
  • A silent person; a person who does not talk.
  • An unintelligent person.
    • Don't be such a dummy !
  • A figure of a person or animal used by a ventriloquist; a puppet.
  • Something constructed with the size and form of a human, to be used in place of a person.
    • To understand the effects of the accident, we dropped a dummy from the rooftop.
  • A deliberately nonfunctional device or tool used in place of a functional one.
    • The hammer and drill in the display are dummies .
  • (AU, UK, NZ) A "dummy teat"; a plastic or rubber teat used to soothe or comfort a baby; a pacifier.
    • The baby wants her dummy .
  • * 2006 , Tizzie Hall, Save Our Sleep: A Parents? Guide Towards Happy, Sleeping Babies from Birth to Two Years , MacMillan 2009, page 200,
    • Then on the fifth day, at the first sleep of the day, remove the dummy' and follow my settling guide for your baby?s age. You should throw all her ' dummies in the bin to ensure you are not tempted to use them again – even outside sleep times.
  • * 2008 , Bern, Bern's Fairy Tales , page 15,
    • No Fairy baby has ever been seen to suck its thumb or to use a dummy .
  • * 2011 , Simone Cave, Caroline Fertleman, Baby to Toddler Month by Month , page 85,
    • We?ve found that going cold turkey works best – you check that your baby isn't ill or teething, then throw all dummies' away. When your baby cries for her ' dummy , you can look her in the eye and say, ‘It?s gone,’ and really mean it.
  • (card games, chiefly, bridge) A player whose hand is shown and is to be played from by another player.
  • (UK) A bodily gesture meant to fool an opposing player in sport; a feint.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=January 12 , author=Saj Chowdhury , title=Liverpool 2 - 1 Liverpool , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Raul Meireles was the victim of the home side's hustling on this occasion giving the ball away to the impressive David Vaughan who slipped in Taylor-Fletcher. The striker sold Daniel Agger with the best dummy of the night before placing his shot past keeper Pepe Reina.}}
  • (linguistics) A word serving only to make a construction grammatical.
    • The pronoun "it" in "It's a mystery why this happened" is a dummy .
  • (programming) An unused parameter or value.
    • If flag1 is false, the other parameters are dummies .

    Synonyms

    * (a thing in the form of a person) mannequin, marionette * (plastic teat) pacifier (US), soother (Canada)

    Derived terms

    * dummy bid * dummy bidder

    Related terms

    * dumb

    See also

    * dud * fake * feint

    External links

    * http://www.languagehat.com/archives/002594.php

    Verb

  • To make a mock-up or prototype version of something, without some or all off its intended functionality.
    • The carpenters dummied some props for the rehearsals.
  • To feint
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=February 1 , author=Mandeep Sanghera , title=Man Utd 3 - 1 Aston Villa , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The more glamorous qualities usually associated with him are skill and pace and he used those to race on to a ball across him and dummy a defender before having a right-foot shot saved. }}
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=January 15 , author=Kevin Darling , title=West Ham 0 - 3 Arsenal , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=For the first, the 30-year-old allowed Walcott space on the right to send in a pass that was expertly dummied by Samir Nasri, allowing Van Persie to swivel and smash right-footed past Robert Green. }}

    Derived terms

    * dummy out * dummy up