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Commotion vs Traffic - What's the difference?

commotion | traffic |

As nouns the difference between commotion and traffic

is that commotion is a state of turbulent motion while traffic is pedestrians or vehicles on roads, or the flux or passage thereof.

As a verb traffic is

to pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods; to barter; to trade.

commotion

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A state of turbulent motion.
  • An agitated disturbance or a hubbub.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=19 citation , passage=When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.}}
  • (euphemistic) Sexual excitement.
  • {{quote-Fanny Hill, part=3 , and now, glancing my eyes towards that part of his dress which cover'd the essential object of enjoyment, I plainly discover'd the swell and commotion there}}

    Derived terms

    *

    Synonyms

    * See also

    traffic

    Alternative forms

    * traffick

    Noun

    (-)
  • Pedestrians or vehicles on roads, or the flux or passage thereof.
  • Traffic is slow at rush hour.
  • Commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people.
  • * 1719 , :
  • I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians).
  • * 2007 , John Darwin, After Tamerlane , Penguin 2008, p. 12:
  • It's units of study are regions or oceans, long-distance trades [...], the traffic of cults and beliefs between cultures and continents.
  • Illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs.
  • Exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
  • Commodities of the market.
  • * John Gay
  • You'll see a draggled damsel / From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear.

    Derived terms

    * traffic boy * traffic jam

    Verb

    (traffick)
  • To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods; to barter; to trade.
  • To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain.
  • To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration.
  • References

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