different between career vs graze

English

Etymology

Mid 16th century, from French carrière (a road or racecourse), from Italian carriera, from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carr?ria based on Latin carrus 'wheeled vehicle'. Alternatively, from Middle French carriere, from Old Occitan carriera ("road"), from Late Latin carr?ria.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?????/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?????/
• Homophone (non-rhotic accents only): Korea
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Noun

career (plural careers)

1. One's calling in life; a person's occupation; one's profession.
2. General course of action or conduct in life, or in a particular part of it.

3. (archaic) Speed.
   • 1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick

     when a horse is running in his full career

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, chapter XIII, Democracy

     It may be admitted that Democracy, in all meanings of the word, is in full career; irresistible by any Ritter Kauderwalsch or other Son of Adam, as times go.

4. A jouster's path during a joust.
   • 1819: Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

     These knights, therefore, their aim being thus eluded, rushed from opposite sides betwixt the object of their attack and the Templar, almost running their horses against each other ere they could stop their career.

5. (obsolete) A short gallop of a horse. [16th-18th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, trans. Michel de Montaigne, Essyas, I.48:

     It is said of Cæsar […] that in his youth being mounted upon a horse, and without any bridle, he made him run a full cariere [tr. carriere], make a sodaine stop, and with his hands behind his backe performe what ever can be expected of an excellent ready horse.

   • 1756, William Guthrie (translator), Of Eloquence (originally by Quintillian)

     Such littleness damps the heat, and weakens the force of genius; as we check a horse in his career, and rein him in when we want him to amble

6. (falconry) The flight of a hawk.
7. (obsolete) A racecourse; the ground run over.

   • to think of going back again the same career

Related terms

• careerism
• careerist

Translations

Verb

career (third-person singular simple present careers, present participle careering, simple past and past participle careered)

1. To move rapidly straight ahead, especially in an uncontrolled way.

   Synonym: careen

   The car careered down the road, missed the curve, and went through a hedge.

Translations

Adjective

career (not comparable)

1. Synonym of serial (“doing something repeatedly or regularly as part of one's lifestyle or career”)

   a career criminal

   • 2012, Arthur Gillard, Homelessness (page 38)

     Studies on homeless income find that the typical “career panhandler” who dedicates his time overwhelmingly to begging can make between $600 and $1,500 a month.

Further reading

• "career" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 52.

Scots

Etymology

From English career.

Noun

career (plural careers)

1. career

English

Etymology

From Old English grasian (“to feed on grass”), from græs (“grass”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?z/
• Homophones: grays, greys
• Rhymes: -e?z

Noun

graze (plural grazes)

1. The act of grazing; a scratching or injuring lightly on passing.
2. A light abrasion; a slight scratch.
3. The act of animals feeding from pasture.
   • 1904, Empire Review (volume 6, page 188)

     If it be sundown, when the herds are returning from their daily graze in the long grass of the jungle, clouds of dust will be marking their track along every approach to the village […]

Translations

Verb

graze (third-person singular simple present grazes, present participle grazing, simple past and past participle grazed)

1. (transitive) To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Considerations upon Two Bills Relating to the Clergy

     a field or two to graze his cows

   • 1999: Although it is perfectly good meadowland, none of the villagers has ever grazed animals on the meadow on the other side of the wall. — Stardust, Neil Gaiman, page 4 (2001 Perennial Edition).
2. (transitive, intransitive) To feed on; to eat (growing herbage); to eat grass from (a pasture)

   Cattle graze in the meadows.

   • 1993, John Montroll, Origami Inside-Out (page 41)

     The bird [Canada goose] is more often found on land than other waterfowl because of its love for seeds and grains. The long neck is well adapted for grazing.

3. (transitive) To tend (cattle, etc.) while grazing.
   • 1596-98, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act I, scene iii:

     Shylock: When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep

4. (intransitive) To eat periodically throughout the day, rather than at fixed mealtimes.
   • 2008, Mohgah Elsheikh, Caroline Murphy, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

     Furthermore, people who take the time to sit down to proper meals find their food more satisfying than people who graze throughout the day. If you skip meals, you will inevitably end up snacking on more high-fat high-sugar foods.

5. To shoplift by consuming food or drink items before reaching the checkout.
   • 1992, Shoplifting (page 18)

     Grazing refers to customers who consume food items before paying for them, for example, a customer bags one and a half pounds of grapes in the produce department, eats some as she continues her shopping […]

   • 2001, Labor Arbitration Information System (volume 2, page 59)

     Had the Grievant attempted to pay for the Mylanta or actually paid for it, then she would not be guilty of grazing or shoplifting.

6. (transitive) To rub or touch lightly the surface of (a thing) in passing.

   the bullet grazed the wall

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 23

     But in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship’s direst jeopardy; she must fly all hospitality; one touch of land, though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder through and through.

7. (transitive) To cause a slight wound to; to scratch.

   to graze one's knee

8. (intransitive) To yield grass for grazing.

Derived terms

• Earth-grazing
• grazing fire
• overgraze

Translations

Anagrams

• Garzê, Zager, gazer

Dutch

Verb

graze

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of grazen