Staple vs Couple - What's the difference?
staple | couple | Related terms |
A town containing merchants who have exclusive right, under royal authority, to purchase or produce certain goods for export; also, the body of such merchants seen as a group.
* Arbuthnot
* Sir Walter Scott
* 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 73:
(by extension) Place of supply; source.
* Macaulay
The principal commodity produced in a town or region.
* Trench
* 1929 , , , Chapter VIII, Section ii:
A basic or essential supply.
A recurring topic or character.
* 2010 , The Economist , Jul-Aug 2010, p. 27:
Short fiber, as of cotton, sheep’s wool, or the like, which can be spun into yarn or thread.
Unmanufactured material; raw material.
To sort according to its staple.
Relating to, or being market of staple for, commodities.
Established in commerce; occupying the markets; settled.
Fit to be sold; marketable.
Regularly produced or manufactured in large quantities; belonging to wholesale traffic; principal; chief.
* Hallam
A wire fastener used to secure stacks of paper by penetrating all the sheets and curling around.
A wire fastener used to secure something else by penetrating and curling.
A U-shaped metal fastener, used to attach fence wire or other material to posts or structures.
One of a set of U-shaped metal rods hammered into a structure, such as a piling or wharf, which serve as a ladder.
(mining) A shaft, smaller and shorter than the principal one, joining different levels.
A small pit.
A district granted to an abbey.
To secure with a staple.
Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
* 1729 , (Jonathan Swift), (A Modest Proposal)
Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
(label) A small number.
* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
* 1891 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Red-Headed League)
* 1902 , ,
* , chapter=1
, title= *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.}}
One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.
(label) Two forces that are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction (and acting along parallel lines), thus creating the turning effect of a torque or moment.
(label) A couple-close.
(label) That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.
* (w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
(informal) A small number of.
To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).
(dated) To join in wedlock; to marry.
* (rfdate),
To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
* 1987 Alan Norman Bold & Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman
* 2001 John Fisher & Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete, p405
In transitive terms the difference between staple and couple
is that staple is to secure with a staple while couple is to join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).As an adjective staple
is relating to, or being market of staple for, commodities.As a determiner couple is
a small number of.staple
English
Etymology 1
(The Staple) From (etyl) estaple, (etyl) . Compare staff.Noun
(en noun)- The customs of Alexandria were very great, it having been the staple of the Indian trade.
- For the increase of trade and the encouragement of the worthy burgesses of Woodstock, her majesty was minded to erect the town into a staple for wool.
- Calais was one of the ‘principal treasures’ of the crown, of both strategic and economic importance. It was home to the staple , the crown-controlled marketplace for England's lucrative textile trade, whose substantial customs and tax revenues flooded into Henry's coffers.
- Whitehall naturally became the chief staple of news. Whenever there was a rumour that any thing important had happened or was about to happen, people hastened thither to obtain intelligence from the fountain head.
- We should now say, Cotton is the great staple , that is, the established merchandize, of Manchester.
- The pastoral industry, which had weathered the severe depression of the early forties by recourse to boiling down the sheep for their tallow, and was now firmly re-established as the staple industry of the colony, was threatened once more with eclipse.
- Rice is a staple in the diet of many cultures.
- In most countries, rubbish makes headlines only when it is not collected, and stinking sacks lie heaped on the streets. In Britain bins are a front-page staple .
- Tow is flax with short staple .
Verb
(stapl)- to staple cotton
Adjective
(-)- a staple town
- a staple trade
- (Dryden)
- (Swift)
- wool, the great staple commodity of England
Etymology 2
Probably from (etyl) , from (etyl).Noun
(en noun)- Can you believe they use staples to hold cars together these days?
- The rancher used staples to attach the barbed wire to the fence-posts.
- Fortunately, there were staples in the quay wall, and she was able to climb out of the water.
- (Camden)
Verb
(stapl)Derived terms
* staplerAnagrams
* ----couple
English
Noun
(en noun)- I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders;
- A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle
- ‘Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and it need not interfere very much with one’s other occupations.’
Across Coveted Lands:
- When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.}}
- It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples ; they should be of the same size and humour.
- I'll go in couples with her.
Usage notes
* The traditional and still most broadly accepted usage of be used only as a noun and not as a determiner in formal writing. * "A couple of things" or people may be used to mean two of them, but it is also often used to mean any small number. *: The farm is a couple of miles off the main highway [=a few miles away]. *: We’re going out to a restaurant with a couple of friends [=two friends]. *: Wait a couple of minutes [=two minutes or more].Synonyms
* (two partners) * (two things of the same kind) brace, pair * (a small number of) few, handfulDerived terms
* bridal couple * coupla * couplezilla * couple-close * galvanic couple * voltaic coupleDeterminer
(head)Verb
(coupl)- Now the conductor will couple the train cars.
- I've coupled our system to theirs.
- A parson who couples all our beggars.
- On their wedding night they coupled nine times.
- She had the brilliant inventor and craftsman Daedalus construct her an artificial cow, in which she hid and induced the bull to couple with her [...]