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Spurn vs Discard - What's the difference?

spurn | discard |

In lang=en terms the difference between spurn and discard

is that spurn is to waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity) while discard is to throw away, to reject.

As verbs the difference between spurn and discard

is that spurn is (ambitransitive) to reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn while discard is to throw away, to reject.

As nouns the difference between spurn and discard

is that spurn is an act of spurning; a scornful rejection while discard is anything discarded.

spurn

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (ambitransitive) To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
  • * Shakespeare
    • to spurn at your most royal image
  • * Shakespeare
    • What safe and nicely I might well delay / By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn .
  • * John Locke
    • Domestics will pay a more cheerful service when they find themselves not spurned because fortune has laid them at their master's feet.
  • To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.
  • To waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity)
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 28 , author=Tom Rostance , title=Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Marouane Chamakh then spurned a great chance to kill the game off when he ran onto Andrey Arshavin's lofted through ball but shanked his shot horribly across the face of goal.}}
  • (obsolete) To kick or toss up the heels.
  • * Chaucer
    • The miller spurned at a stone.
  • * Gay
    • The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns .

    Derived terms

    * spurner

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.
  • A kick; a blow with the foot.
  • * Milton
    • What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn ?
  • (obsolete) Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The insolence of office and the spurns / That patient merit of the unworthy takes.
  • A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.

    • discard

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to throw away, to reject.
  • * I. Taylor
    • A man discards the follies of boyhood.
  • (card games) To make a discard; to throw out a card.
  • To dismiss from employment, confidence, or favour; to discharge.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • They blame the favourites, and think it nothing extraordinary that the queen should resolve to discard them.

    Synonyms

    * cast away * dismiss * dispose * eliminate * get rid of * throw away * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anything discarded.
  • A discarded playing card in a card game.

    • External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * English heteronyms