different between coil vs loophole

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /k??l/
• Rhymes: -??l

Etymology 1

From Middle French coillir (“to gather, pluck, pick, cull”) (French: cueillir), from Latin colligo (“to gather together”), past participle collectus, from com- (“together”) + lego (“to gather”); compare legend. Doublet of cull.

Noun

coil (plural coils)

1. Something wound in the form of a helix or spiral.

   • The wild grapevines that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to tree.

2. Any intrauterine device (Abbreviation: IUD)—the first IUDs were coil-shaped.
3. (electrical) A coil of electrically conductive wire through which electricity can flow.

   Synonym: inductor

4. (figuratively) Entanglement; perplexity.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (koiru)

Translations

Verb

coil (third-person singular simple present coils, present participle coiling, simple past and past participle coiled)

1. To wind or reel e.g. a wire or rope into regular rings, often around a centerpiece.

2. To wind into loops (roughly) around a common center.

3. To wind cylindrically or spirally.

4. (obsolete, rare) To encircle and hold with, or as if with, coils.
   • a. 1757, Thomas Edwards, sonnet to Mr. Nathanael Mason

     Pleasure coil thee in her dangerous snare

Translations

Etymology 2

Origin unknown.

Noun

coil (plural coils)

1. (now obsolete except in phrases) A noise, tumult, bustle, or turmoil.
   • a. 1738, Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux, and John Ozell (translators), François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel

     And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their access to her, and every way keeping such a coil with her as they are wont to do about a proud or salt bitch, he forthwith departed […]

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act III:

     If the windes rage, doth not the Sea wax mad, / Threatning the welkin with his big-swolne face? / And wilt thou haue a reason for this coile?

   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 162:

     this great Savage desired also to see him. A great coyle there was to set him forward.

Derived terms

• mortal coil

Translations

Further reading

• coil in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• coil in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Clio, coli, loci

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [k?l?]

Noun 1

coil m

1. vocative/genitive singular of col (“prohibition; sin, lust; violation; dislike; incest; relation, relationship”)

Noun 2

coil m

1. inflection of col (“col”):
   1. vocative/genitive singular
   2. nominative/dative plural

Mutation

English

Etymology

From Middle English loupe (“opening in a wall”) +? hole, from a Germanic source. Compare Medieval Latin loupa, lobia and Middle Dutch lupen (“to watch”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?lu?ph??l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?lupho?l/
• Hyphenation: loop?hole

Noun

loophole (plural loopholes)

1. (historical) A slit in a castle wall; today, any similar window for shooting a ranged weapon or letting in light.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe:

     ... and having a fair loophole, as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss.

   • 1809, Maria Edgeworth, The Absentee:

     There was a loophole in this wall, to let the light in, just at the height of a person's head, who was sitting near the chimney.
2. (figuratively) A method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule or law that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect.

Derived terms

• lo mein loophole

Translations

Verb

loophole (third-person singular simple present loopholes, present participle loopholing, simple past and past participle loopholed)

1. (military, transitive) To prepare a building for defense by preparing slits or holes through which to fire on attackers
2. (transitive) To exploit (a law, etc.) by means of loopholes.
   • 2005, Deborah Rhode, David Luban, Legal Ethics Stories

     De-moralizing the subject can be, quite simply, demoralizing, as stirring statements of ideals turn into persnickety rules with exceptions crying out to be loopholed.

Further reading

• loophole on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• loophole (firearm) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References