What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Purse vs Tote - What's the difference?

purse | tote |

As nouns the difference between purse and tote

is that purse is a small bag for carrying money while tote is or tote can be cadaver; corpse (female dead person).

As a verb purse

is to press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude.

purse

English

(wikipedia purse)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small bag for carrying money.
  • * 1550 Mierdman, Steuen, The market or fayre of usurers
    • And then mu?t many a man occupie as farre as his pur?e would reache, and ?tretche out his legges accordynge to the length of his couerlet.
  • (US) A handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)
  • A quantity of money given for a particular purpose.
  • * , Episode 12, The Cyclops
    • It was a historic and a hefty battle when Myler and Percy were scheduled to don the gloves for the purse of fifty sovereigns.
  • (historical) A specific sum of money in certain countries: formerly 500 piastres in Turkey or 50 tomans in Persia.

    • Synonyms

    * (small bag for carrying money) pocketbook; coin purse, change purse * (especially US) * (small bag used by women) handbag (especially UK) * (quantity of money) bursary, grant

    Derived terms

    * common purse * make a silk purse of a sow's ear * murse

    Related terms

    * bursa, bursar, bursary * reimburse

    See also

    * wallet

    Verb

    (purs)
  • To press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude.
  • * 1979 , (Monty Python), (Always Look on the Bright Side of Life)
    • When you're feeling in the dumps
    Don't be silly chumps
    Just purse your lips and whistle – that's the thing.
  • To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles; to pucker; to knit.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Thou didst contract and purse thy brow.
  • To put into a purse.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I will go and purse the ducats straight.
  • (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To steal purses; to rob.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • I'll purse : I'll bet at bowling alleys.

    Synonyms

    * pucker

    Anagrams

    * ----

    tote

    English

    (wikipedia tote)

    Etymology 1

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A bag, specifically a tote bag.
  • A heavy burden.

    • Verb

    (tot)
  • To carry or bear.
  • *, chapter=8
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=We toted in the wood and got the fire going nice and comfortable. Lord James still set in one of the chairs and Applegate had cabbaged the other and was hugging the stove.}}

    Etymology 2

    Shortening of (total), with e to distinguish from (tot) in writing

    Alternative forms

    * tot

    Verb

    (tot)
  • To add up; to calculate a total.

    • Etymology 3

    Shortening of (totalizator)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (British) A pari-mutuel machine; a totalizator
  • *1892 , Banjo Paterson,
  • *:He was a humorist of note and keen at repartee,
  • *:He laid the odds and kept a "tote ", whatever that may be,