Wise vs Ways - What's the difference?
wise | ways |
Showing good judgement or the benefit of experience.
(colloquial) Disrespectful.
To become wise.
(ergative, slang) Usually with "up", to inform or learn.
(archaic) Way, manner, method.
* 1850 , The Burden of Nineveh , lines 2-5
* 1866 , , A Ballad of Life , lines 28-30
* 1926 , J. S. Fletcher, Sea Fog , page 308
(dialectal) to instruct
(dialectal) to advise; induce
(dialectal) to show the way, guide
(dialectal) to direct the course of, pilot
(dialectal) to cause to turn
English plurals
(plural only) The timbers of shipyard stocks that slope into the water and along which a ship or large boat is launched.
* {{quote-book
, year=1912
, year_published=
, edition=
, editor=
, author=Fredrick A. Talbot
, title=Steamship Conquest of the World
, chapter=
(plural only) The longitudinal guiding surfaces on the bed of a planer, lathe, etc. along which a table or carriage moves.
(informal) A distance.
* 2007, Aryn Kyle, The God of Animals , Simon and Schuster, ISBN 1416533249, page 41,
As an acronym wise
is (aviation|nautical) (adjective).As a noun ways is
.wise
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) wis, wys, from (etyl) . Cognate with Dutch wijs, German weise, Swedish vis. Compare wit.Adjective
(er)- Storing extra food for the winter was a wise decision.
- They were considered the wise old men of the administration.
- "It is a profitable thing, if one is wise , to seem foolish" - Aeschylus
- Don't get wise with me!
Usage notes
* Objects: person, decision, advice, counsel, saying, etc.Antonyms
* unwise * foolishDerived terms
* crack wise * wisdom * wiseacre * wise apple * wiseass * wisecrack * wise guy * wise-hearted * wiseling * wiselike * wiseness * wizen * wizard * word to the wiseVerb
(wis)- Mo wised him up about his situation.
- ''After Mo had a word with him, he wised up.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- ... the prize
- Dead Greece vouchsafes to living eyes, —
- Her Art for ever in fresh wise
- From hour to hour rejoicing me.
- A riven hood was pulled across his eyes;
- The token of him being upon this wise
- Made for a sign of Lust.
- And within a few minutes the rest of us were on our way too, judiciously instructed by Parkapple and the Brighton official, and disposed of in two taxi-cabs, the drivers of which were ordered to convey us to Rottingdean in such wise that each set his load of humanity at different parts of the village and at the same time that the bus was due to arrive at the hotel.
Derived terms
* -wiseEtymology 3
From (etyl) .Verb
Statistics
* 1000 English basic wordsways
English
Noun
(-)citation, genre= , publisher= , isbn= , page=36 , passage= By the time the Mauretania was ready for launching a total weight of 16,800 tons was standing in the berth, and this represented the heaviest weight that had ever been sent down the ways up to that time. }}
- “We still have a ways to go with patterns.”
- “You still have a ways to go with everything,” I told him.