Through vs Over - What's the difference?
through | over |
From one side of an opening to the other.
:
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
, page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Entering, then later leaving.
:
*
*:Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging.He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
*
*:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Surrounded by (while moving).
:
*, chapter=1
, title= *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= By means of.
:
*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 28, author=Tom Rostance, title=Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos
, work=BBC Sport *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (lb) To (or up to) and including, with all intermediate values.
:
Passing from one side of an object to the other.
:
Finished; complete.
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Valueless; without a future.
:
No longer interested.
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*
*:“I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.
*1977 , Iggy Pop,
*:I'm worth a million in prizes / Yeah, I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk / No more beating my brains / No more beating my brains / With the liquor and drugs / With the liquor and drugs
Proceeding from origin to destination without delay due to change of equipment.
:
From one side to the other by way of the interior.
From one end to the other.
To the end.
Completely.
Out into the open.
Thoroughly; completely; from beginning to end.
* 1661 , ,
From an upright position to being horizontal.
Horizontally; left to right or right to left.
From one position or state to another.
Overnight (throughout the night).
Again; another time; once more; over again.
(cricket) A set of six legal balls bowled.
Any surplus amount of money, goods delivered, etc.
* 2008 , G. Puttick, Sandy van Esch, The Principles and Practice of Auditing (page 609)
Physical positioning.
# On top of; above; higher than; further up.
#* (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)
#* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= # Across or spanning.
#* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
#* , chapter=3
, title= #* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= # In such a way as to cover.
# From one physical position to another via an obstacle that must be traversed vertically, first upwards and then downwards.
By comparison.
# More than; to a greater degree.
# Beyond; past; exceeding; too much or too far.
# (label) As compared to.
(label) Divided by.
Finished with; done with; from one state to another via a hindrance that must be solved or defeated; or via a third state that represents a significant difference from the first two.
While]] using, (especially) while [[consume, consuming.
* 1990 , (Seymour Chatman), Coming to Terms , , ISBN 0801497361, page 100[http://books.google.com/books?id=loD1JXOtmTYC&pg=PA100&dq=relax]:
* 1998 , Marian Swerdlow, Underground Woman , , ISBN 1566396107, page 88 [http://books.google.com/books?id=jIK3DGkOwYkC&pg=PA88&dq=croissants]:
* 2009 , Sara Pennypacker, The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery , , ISBN 9780545207867, page 79:
Concerning or regarding.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Above, implying superiority after a contest; in spite of; notwithstanding.
In radio communications: end of sentence, ready to receive reply.
As prepositions the difference between through and over
is that through is from one side of an opening to the other while over is physical positioning.As adjectives the difference between through and over
is that through is passing from one side of an object to the other while over is finished; ended or concluded.As adverbs the difference between through and over
is that through is from one side to the other by way of the interior while over is thoroughly; completely; from beginning to end.As nouns the difference between through and over
is that through is a large slab of stone laid on a tomb while over is a set of six legal balls bowled.As an interjection over is
in radio communications: end of sentence, ready to receive reply.through
English
Alternative forms
* thorow (obsolete) * thruEtymology 1
From (etyl) *. See also thorough.Preposition
(English prepositions)Ideas coming down the track, passage=A “moving platform” scheme
No hiding place, passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
Snakes and ladders, passage=Risk is everywhere.
citation, passage=But the home side were ahead in the eighth minute through 18-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain.}}
The attack of the MOOCs, passage=Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.}}
Derived terms
(terms derived using the preposition "through") * clear through * feedthrough * get through * go through * look through * right through * through and through * through with * throughput * throughwayAdjective
(-)Adverb
(-)- The arrow went straight through .
- Others slept; he worked straight through .
- She read the letter through .
- He said he would see it through .
- Leave the yarn in the dye overnight so the color soaks through .
- The American army broke through at St. Lo.
References
* Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Bounded landmarks", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition , Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8Etymology 2
From (etyl)over
English
(wikipedia over)Derived terms
*Adverb
(-)The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond
- During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant
Noun
(en noun)- ...standard cash count forms used to record the count and any overs or unders.
Preposition
(English prepositions)- Over them gleamed far off the crimson banners of morning.
The Evolution of Eyeglasses, passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,
- Certain lakespoison birds which fly over them.
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
A punch in the gut, passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}
- Six diners in business clothes—five attractive young women and a balding middle-aged man—relax over cigarettes.
- Sunday had been my favorite day at Woodlawn. A long W.A.A. [="work as assigned" period], having coffee and croissants with Mark over the Sunday Times .
- Over meatloaf and mashed potatoes (being careful not to talk with his mouth full), Stanley told about his adventure.
Can China clean up fast enough?, passage=It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.}}
Usage notes
When used in the context of "from one location to another", over'' implies that the two places are at approximately the same height or the height difference is not relevant. For example, if two offices are on the same floor of a building, an office worker might say ''I'll bring that over''' for you'', while if the offices were on different floors, the sentence would likely be ''I'll bring that up [down] for you.'' However, distances are not constrained, e.g. ''He came '''over''' from England last year and now lives in Los Angeles'' or ''I moved the stapler '''over to the other side of my desk.Interjection
(en interjection)- How do you receive? Over !
