different between buckle vs couple

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b?k(?)l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?b?k(?)l/
• Homophone: buccal (one pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -?k?l

Etymology 1

From a frequentative form of buck (“to bend, buckle”), of Dutch Low Saxon or German Low German origin, related to Dutch bukken (“to stoop, bend, yield, submit”), German bücken (“to stoop, bend”), Swedish bocka (“to buck, bow”), equivalent to buck +? -le. Compare Middle Dutch buchelen (“to strive, tug under a load”), dialectal German aufbückeln (“to raise or arch the back”).

Verb

buckle (third-person singular simple present buckles, present participle buckling, simple past and past participle buckled)

1. (intransitive) To distort or collapse under physical pressure; especially, of a slender structure in compression.
   • 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[1]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):

     Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property.

2. (transitive) To make bend; to cause to become distorted.
3. (intransitive, figuratively) To give in; to react suddenly or adversely to stress or pressure (of a person).

   It is amazing that he has never buckled after so many years of doing such urgent work.

4. (intransitive) To yield; to give way; to cease opposing.
   • 1664, Samuel Pepys, diary entry December 15

     The Dutch, as high as they seem, do begin to buckle.

5. (obsolete, intransitive) To enter upon some labour or contest; to join in close fight; to contend.
   • 1549, Hugh Latimer, The Second Sermon preached before King Edward

     The bishop was as able and ready to buckle with the Lord Protector as he was with him.
6. To buckle down; to apply oneself.
   • 1700, Isaac Barrow, Of Industry in our particular Calling, as Scholars

     To make our sturdy humour buckle thereto.

   • December 6, 1838, James David Forbes, letter to J. T. Harrison, Esq.

     Before buckling to my winter's work.

   • Cartwright buckled himself to the employment.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bokel (“spiked metal ring for holding a belt, etc”), from Old French boucle, bocle (“"boss (of a shield)" then "shield," later "buckle, metal ring”), from Latin buccula (“cheek strap of a helmet”), diminutive of bucca (“cheek”).

Noun

buckle (plural buckles)

1. (countable) A clasp used for fastening two things together, such as the ends of a belt, or for retaining the end of a strap.
2. (Canada, heraldry) The brisure of an eighth daughter.
3. (roofing) An upward, elongated displacement of a roof membrane frequently occurring over insulation or deck joints. A buckle may be an indication of movement with the roof assembly.
4. A distortion, bulge, bend, or kink, as in a saw blade or a plate of sheet metal.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

5. A curl of hair, especially a kind of crisp curl formerly worn; also, the state of being curled.

   • ear-locks in tight buckles on each side of a long lanthorn face

   • lets his wig lie in buckle for a whole half year

6. A contorted expression, as of the face.
   • 1763, Charles Churchill, The Ghost

     'Gainst nature arm'd by gravity, / His features too in buckle see.

Translations

Verb

buckle (third-person singular simple present buckles, present participle buckling, simple past and past participle buckled)

1. (transitive) To fasten using a buckle.
2. (Scotland) To unite in marriage.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Scott to this entry?)

Translations

See also

• buckle down
• buckle to
• buckle up
• turnbuckle
• sun kink (buckle in railway track)

Anagrams

• Lubeck, Lübeck

English

Alternative forms

• copel (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English couple, from Old French couple, from Latin c?pula. Doublet of copula.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?p?l/
• Rhymes: -?p?l

Noun

couple (plural couples)

1. Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
   • 1729, Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal

     I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; […]

2. Two of the same kind connected or considered together.

   A couple fewer people show up every week.

   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby

     […] couple of tables; one of which bore some preparations for supper; while, on the other […]

3. (informal) A small number.
   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby

     A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle […]

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Red-Headed League

     ‘Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and it need not interfere very much with one’s other occupations.’

   • 1902, A. Henry Savage Landor, Across Coveted Lands:

     When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore […]
4. One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.
5. (physics) Two forces that are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction (and acting along parallel lines), thus creating the turning effect of a torque or moment.
6. (architecture) A couple-close.
7. (obsolete) That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.

   • I’ll keep my stables where
     I lodge my wife; I’ll go in couples with her;

Usage notes

• A traditional and still broadly accepted usage of couple is as a noun followed by "of" to mean "two", as in "a couple of people". In this usage, "a couple of" is equivalent to "a pair of".

• The very widespread use of the same expression (e.g. "a couple of people") to mean any small number is often considered informal but is in fact very old and often considered unobjectionable on all levels of style, sometimes even contradictorily by the same publication that labels this use as informal elsewhere on the same page, e.g. the American Heritage Dictionary.

  The farm is a couple of miles off the main highway [= a few miles away].

  We’re going out to a restaurant with a couple of friends [= a few friends].

  Wait a couple of minutes [= a few minutes].

• Couple or a couple is also used informally and formally as an adjective or determiner (see definition below) to mean "a few", in which case it is not followed by "of". Many usage manuals advise against this widespread use although the Merriam-Webster Dictionary points out that this use before a word indicating degree is standard in both US and UK English (e.g. "a couple more examples" or "a couple less problems"). Only its use before an ordinary plural noun is an Americanism, which the dictionary explains is "common in speech and in writing that is not meant to be formal or elevated". This use is especially frequent with numbers, time, and other measurements, such as "a couple hundred", "a couple minutes", and "a couple dozen".

Synonyms

• (two partners):
• (two things of the same kind): brace, pair; see also Thesaurus:duo
• (a small number of): few, handful

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

couple (not comparable)

1. (informal, US) Two or (a) small number of.

Determiner

couple

1. (colloquial, US) Two or a few, a small number of.

Verb

couple (third-person singular simple present couples, present participle coupling, simple past and past participle coupled)

1. (transitive) To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).

   Now the conductor will couple the train cars.

   I've coupled our system to theirs.

2. (transitive, dated) To join in wedlock; to marry.
3. (intransitive) To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
   • 1987 Alan Norman Bold & Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman

     On their wedding night they coupled nine times.

   • 2001 John Fisher & Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete, p405

     She had the brilliant inventor and craftsman Daedalus construct her an artificial cow, in which she hid and induced the bull to couple with her [...]

Synonyms

• (to join together): affix, attach, put together; see also Thesaurus:join
• (to join in wedlock): bewed, espouse; see also Thesaurus:marry
• (to join in sexual intercourse): have sex, make love; see also Thesaurus:copulate

Derived terms

• coupling (noun)
• coupling rod (a rod that couples)
• decouple, decoupled
• uncouple

Translations

References

Anagrams

• culpeo

French

Etymology

From Old French couple, from Vulgar Latin *c?pla, from Latin c?pula. Doublet of copule.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kupl/

Noun

couple m (plural couples)

1. two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship

2. (physics) a force couple; a pure moment
3. (mathematics) an ordered pair

Noun

couple f (plural couples)

1. (animal husbandry) An accessory used to tightly attach two animals next to each other by the neck.
2. (regional) a pair of something.
3. (Canada) a couple of something, not to be mistaken as a few.

Related terms

• couplage
• coupler

Further reading

• “couple” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• copule, copulé

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French couple, from Latin c?pula.

Alternative forms

• cuple, copull, cupple, cople, coupull, cowpulle, copill, cupil

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kup?l/, /?kupl?/, /?ku?p?l/

Noun

couple (plural couples or couple)

1. A couple; two people joined by a marital union or matrimony.
2. A pair of animals of opposing genders (in a breeding context)
3. A group of two things or animals, a pair (never three or more as in modern English)
4. A lead or tie linked to two dogs and used to restrain them.
5. A measurement for fruits, especially when dried.
6. (architecture) One of two opposing roof beams (or the two as a pair)
7. (rare) Sexual intercourse; the act of sex.

Derived terms

• couplen
• couplyng

Descendants

• English: couple
• Scots: couple, kipple

References

• “c?uple, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-11-06.

Etymology 2

Verb

couple

1. Alternative form of couplen

Old French

Alternative forms

• cople
• cuple

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *copla, from Latin c?pula.

Noun

couple f (oblique plural couples, nominative singular couple, nominative plural couples)

1. couple (two things)
2. sexual liaison

Usage notes

• Occasionally used as a masculine noun (le couple)

Descendants