different between couple vs yoke

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

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: y?k, IPA^(key): /j??k/
• Rhymes: -??k
• Homophone: yolk

Etymology 1

From Middle English yok, ?ok, from Old English ?eoc, from Proto-Germanic *juk?, from Proto-Indo-European *yugóm. Doublet of yuga.

Noun

yoke (plural yokes)

1. Frame around the neck, and related senses.
   1. A bar or frame of wood by which two oxen or other draught animals are joined at the heads or necks enabling them to pull a plough, cart etc. [from 8th c.]
   2. (now US) A frame or convex crosspiece from which a bell is hung. [from 10th c.]
   3. Any of various linking or supporting objects that resemble a yoke; a crosspiece, a curved bar etc. [from 12th c.]
   4. A frame worn on the neck of an animal, such as a cow, pig, or goose, to prevent passage through a fence. [from 16th c.]
   5. A pole carried on the neck and shoulders of a person, used for carrying a pair of buckets, etc., one at each end of the pole. [from 17th c.]
   6. (nautical) A fitting placed across the head of the rudder with a line attached at each end by which a boat may be steered. In modern use it is primarily found in sailing canoes and kayaks. [from 18th c.]
   7. (electronics) The electromagnetic coil that deflects the electron beam in a cathode ray tube. [from 19th c.]
   8. The part of an item of clothing which fits around the shoulders, or the hips, from which the rest of the garment hangs, and which is often distinguished by having a double thickness of material, or decorative flourishes. [from 19th c.]
      • 1913, Willa Cather, O Pioneers!

        […] this city child was dressed in what was then called the "Kate Greenaway" manner, and her red cashmere frock, gathered full from the yoke, came almost to the floor.

      • 1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther 1974, p. 23:

        The dresses her mother made looked ugly, even obscene, for her breasts were well grown, and the yokes emphasized them, showing flattened bulges under the tight band of material […]

   9. (aviation) Any of various devices with crosspieces used to control an aircraft; now specifically, the control column. [from 20th c.]
   10. (video games) A similar device used as a game controller.
   11. (glassblowing) A Y-shaped stand used to support a blowpipe or punty while reheating in the glory hole.
   12. (bodybuilding) Well-developed muscles of the neck and shoulders.
       • 2010, Jim Wendler, "Build an NFL Neck", Men's Fitness (April), page 73.

         Nothing says you're a dedicated lifter and true athlete more than a massive yoke—that is, the muscles of the neck, traps, and rear delts.

2. Pair of harnessed draught animals, and related senses.
   1. (now chiefly historical) A pair of animals, especially oxen, yoked together to pull something. [from 10th c.]
      • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke XIV:

        And another sayd: I have bought fyve yooke of oxen, and I must goo to prove them, I praye the have me excused.

   2. (Scotland, Ireland) A horse and cart, a carriage; now generally, a car or other vehicle. [from 19th c.]
   3. (informal, Ireland) A miscellaneous object; a gadget. [from 20th c.]
   4. (slang, Ireland) Pill of a psychoactive drug.
3. Extended uses and quantities.
   1. An area of arable land, especially specifically consisting of a quarter of a suling, or around 50-60 acres. [from 9th c.]

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

   2. (figuratively) A burden; something which oppresses or restrains a person. [from 9th c.]
   3. A bond of love, especially marriage, otherwise, any kind of friendship. [from 10th c.]
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act III scene iv^[1]:

     […] for in companions

     That do converse and waste the time together,

     Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,

     There must be needs a like proportion

     Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirits; […]

   1. (chiefly Scotland, England regional) An amount of work done with draught animals, lasting about half a day; a shift of work. [from 18th c.]

      to work two yokes, i.e. to work both morning and afternoon

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

Synonyms

• (aviation): control wheel

Derived terms

• pass under the yoke
• under the yoke
• yoke lute

Translations

Verb

yoke (third-person singular simple present yokes, present participle yoking, simple past and past participle yoked)

1. To link or to join.

   • […] Muriel and Benjamin yoked themselves into an old governess-cart and did their share.

2. To unite, to connect.
3. To enslave; to bring into bondage; to restrain; to confine.
   • The words and promises that yoke / The conqueror are quickly broke.

Derived terms

• underyoke
• yoke together

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

yoke

1. Misspelling of yolk.

Anagrams

• Okey, okey

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English ?eoc.

Noun

yoke

1. Alternative form of ?ok

Etymology 2

From Old English ?eocian.

Verb

yoke

1. Alternative form of ?oken