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Spell vs Stint - What's the difference?

spell | stint |

In intransitive terms the difference between spell and stint

is that spell is to be able to write or say the letters that form words while stint is to restrain within certain limits; to bound; to restrict to a scant allowance.

As nouns the difference between spell and stint

is that spell is speech, discourse while stint is a period of time spent doing or being something. A spell.

As verbs the difference between spell and stint

is that spell is to speak, to declaim while stint is to stop (an action); cease, desist.

spell

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) spel, spellian, spelian, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) Speech, discourse.
  • Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
  • He cast a spell to cure warts.
  • A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
  • under a spell
    Synonyms
    * (words or formula supposed to have magical powers) cantrip, incantation * (magical effect induced by an incantation or formula) cantrip

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To speak, to declaim.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.ii:
  • O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell ?
  • (obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
  • * T. Warton
  • Might I that legend find, / By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes.
  • To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
  • * Dryden
  • Spelled with words of power.
  • * Sir G. Buck
  • He was much spelled with Eleanor Talbot.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
  • * 1851 , :
  • "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.
  • To be able to write or say the letters that form words.
  • I find it difficult to spell because I'm dyslexic.
  • Of letters: to compose (a word).
  • The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2008, author=Helen Fryer, title=The Esperanto Teacher citation
  • , isbn=9780554320076, page=13, publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC, passage=In Esperanto each letter has only one sound, and each sound is represented in only one way. The words are pronounced exactly as spelt , every letter being sounded.}}
  • (figuratively) To indicate that (some event) will occur.
  • This spells trouble.
  • Please spell it out for me.
  • * 2003 , U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbel, Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation , ISBN 1422334120:
  • When we get elected, for instance, we get one of these, and we are pretty much told what is in it, and it is our responsibility to read it and understand it, and if we do not, the Ethics Committee, we can call them any time of day and ask them to spell it out for us
  • To constitute; to measure.
  • * Fuller
  • the Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effect
    Derived terms
    * speller * spelling * spello
    Synonyms
    * (to indicate that some event will occur) forebode; mean; signify * (to work in place of someone else) relieve * (to compose a word) (informal) comprise

    Etymology 3

    Origin uncertain; perhaps a form of (speld).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (dialectal) A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.
  • (Holland)

    Etymology 4

    From (etyl) spelen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • To work in place of (someone).
  • to spell the helmsman
  • To rest (someone or something).
  • They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A shift (of work); a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.
  • A period of (work or other activity).
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Liverpool 0-1 West Brom , passage=Despite his ill-fated spell at Anfield, he received a warm reception from the same Liverpool fans he struggled to win over before being sacked midway through last season.}}
  • An indefinite period of time (usually with some qualifying word).
  • * 1975 , (Bob Dylan), (Tangled Up in Blue)
  • I had a job in the great North Woods
    Workin' as a cook for a spell .
    But I never did like it all that much
    And one day the ax just fell.
  • A period of rest; time off.
  • (US) A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.
  • (cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.
  • Derived terms
    * dry spell * set a spell

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    stint

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A period of time spent doing or being something. A spell.
  • He had a stint in jail.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Andrew Benson , title=Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=That left Maldonado with a 6.2-second lead. Alonso closed in throughout their third stints , getting the gap down to 4.2secs before Maldonado stopped for the final time on lap 41.}}
  • limit; bound; restraint; extent
  • * South
  • God has wrote upon no created thing the utmost stint of his power.
  • Quantity or task assigned; proportion allotted.
  • * Cowper
  • His old stint — three thousand pounds a year.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To stop (an action); cease, desist.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.iii:
  • O do thy cruell wrath and spightfull wrong / At length allay, and stint thy stormy strife
  • * Shakespeare
  • And stint thou too, I pray thee.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • The damsel stinted in her song.
  • (obsolete) To stop speaking or talking (of a subject).
  • * Late 14th century , :
  • Now wol I stynten of this Arveragus, / And speken I wole of Dorigen his wyf
  • To be sparing or mean.
  • The next party you throw, don't stint on the beer.
  • To restrain within certain limits; to bound; to restrict to a scant allowance.
  • * Woodward
  • I shall not go about to extenuate the latitude of the curse upon the earth, or stint it only to the production of weeds.
  • * Law
  • She stints them in their meals.
  • To assign a certain task to (a person), upon the performance of which he/she is excused from further labour for that day or period; to stent.
  • To impregnate successfully; to get with foal; said of mares.
  • * J. H. Walsh
  • The majority of maiden mares will become stinted while at work.

    Etymology 2

    Origin unknown.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any of several very small wading birds in the genus Calidris . Types of sandpiper, such as the dunlin or the sanderling.
  • Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (medical device).
  • Anagrams

    * * *