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Speck vs Dust - What's the difference?

speck | dust |

In countable terms the difference between speck and dust

is that speck is a tiny spot, especially of dirt etc while dust is the act of cleaning by dusting.

In uncountable terms the difference between speck and dust

is that speck is a juniper-flavoured ham originally from Tyrol while dust is fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, etc.

In transitive terms the difference between speck and dust

is that speck is to mark with specks; to speckle while dust is to spray or cover something with fine powder or liquid.

speck

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • (countable) A tiny spot, especially of dirt etc.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Out of the gloom , passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.}}
  • (uncountable) A juniper-flavoured ham originally from Tyrol.
  • A very small thing; a particle; a whit.
  • * (Walter Savage Landor), quoted in 1971, Ernest Dilworth, Walter Savage Landor , Twayne Publishers, page 88,
  • Onward, and many bright specks bubble up along the blue Aegean; islands, every one of which, if the songs and stories of the pilots are true, is the monument of a greater man than I am.
  • A small etheostomoid fish, , common in the eastern United States.
  • Synonyms
    * (small thing) See also .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To mark with specks; to speckle.
  • paper specked by impurities in the water used in its manufacture
  • * 1667 , '', 1991, Stephen Orgel, ?Jonathan Goldberg (editors), ''The Major Works , 2003, paperback, page 534,
  • Each flower of slender stalk, whose head though gay / Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold, / Hung drooping unsustained,

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (-)
  • The blubber of whales or other marine mammals.
  • The fat of the hippopotamus.
  • Anagrams

    *

    dust

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, etc.
  • (countable) The act of cleaning by dusting.
  • * 2010 , Joan Busfield, Michael Paddon, Thinking About Children: Sociology and Fertility in Post-War England (page 150)
  • once they start school, I mean you can do a room out one day, the next day it only needs a dust , doesn't it?
  • (obsolete) A single particle of earth or other material.
  • * Shakespeare
  • to touch a dust of England's ground
  • The earth, as the resting place of the dead.
  • * Bible, Job vii. 21
  • I shall sleep in the dust .
  • The earthy remains of bodies once alive; the remains of the human body.
  • * Tennyson
  • And you may carve a shrine about my dust .
  • (figurative) Something worthless.
  • * Shakespeare
  • And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust .
  • (figurative) A low or mean condition.
  • * Bible, 1 Sam. ii. 8
  • [God] raiseth up the poor out of the dust .
  • (slang, dated) cash; money (in reference to gold dust).
  • (mathematics) A totally disconnected set of points with a fractal structure.
  • Derived terms

    * angel dust * bite the dust * catch dust * dust ball * dustbin, dust bin * dust devil * dustbowl, dust bowl * dust bunny * dust filter * dustman * dust mask * dustpan * duststorm * dust trap * dust-up * dusty * fairy dust * goofer dust * pixie dust * smart dust, smartdust * stardust * turn to dust

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To remove dust from.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.}}
  • To remove dust; to clean by removing dust.
  • Of a bird, to cover itself in sand or dry, dusty earth.
  • To spray or cover something with fine powder or liquid.
  • To leave; to rush off.
  • * 1939 , (Raymond Chandler), (The Big Sleep) , Penguin 2011, p. 75:
  • He added in a casual tone: ‘The girl can dust . I'd like to talk to you a little, soldier.’
  • To reduce to a fine powder; to levigate.
  • (Sprat)

    Derived terms

    * dust off * duster

    See also

    * vacuum cleaner