Trice vs Celerity - What's the difference?
trice | celerity |
A very short time; an instant; a moment; – now used only in the phrase in a trice .
* 1623 , William Shakespeare, King Lear , Crown Publishers, Inc. (1975), page 975,
* {{quote-book
, year=1907
, title=(The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses)
, author=Robert W. Service
, chapter=(The Cremation of Sam McGee)
, passage=Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay; / It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May". / And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum; / Then "Here", said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."}}
* 2013 , . Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company. chapter 22. p. 220.
*:And in a trice he has clambered onto the kitchen dresser and is reaching for the top shelf.
To pull; to haul; to drag; to pull away.
* Chaucer
(nautical) To haul and tie up by means of a rope.
(in literary usage) Speed.
* 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick , chapter 48:
* 1937 , Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman’s Honeymoon , chapter 11:
(oceanography) The speed of individual waves (as opposed to the speed of groups of waves).
As nouns the difference between trice and celerity
is that trice is a roller; windlass or trice can be a very short time; an instant; a moment; – now used only in the phrase in a trice while celerity is (in literary usage) speed.As a verb trice
is to pull; to haul; to drag; to pull away.trice
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) tryse, tryys, probably of (etyl) origin; compare Swedish . More at (l), (l).Etymology 2
From (etyl) tryse, in the phrase , later also in the phrases at a trice'', ''with a trice'', ''on a trice'', ''in a trice ; ultimately from the verb. See below.Noun
(en noun)- This is most strange, that she, who even but now was your best object...most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle so many folds of favor.
Etymology 3
From (etyl) trisen, trycen, from (etyl) .Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Verb
(tric)- Out of his seat I will him trice .
Anagrams
* ----celerity
English
Noun
(-)- The phantoms, for so they then seemed, were flitting on the other side of the deck, and, with a noiseless celerity , were casting loose the tackles and bands of the boat which swung there.
“My parsnip wine is really extra good this year. Dr Jellyfield always takes a glass when he comes—which isn’t very often, I’m pleased to say, because my health is always remarkably good.”
“That will not prevent me from drinking to it,” said Peter, disposing of the parsnip wine with a celerity which might have been due to eagerness but, to Harriet, rather suggested a reluctance to let the draught linger on the palate.