different between device vs gear

English

Etymology

From Old French devis, from Latin divisus, past participle of dividere (“to divide”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??va?s/
• Rhymes: -a?s

Noun

device (plural devices)

1. Any piece of equipment made for a particular purpose, especially a mechanical or electrical one.
   • 1949. Geneva Convention on Road Traffic Chapter VI. Provisions Applicable to Cycles in International Traffic

     Every cycle shall be equipped with: [...] (b) an audible warning device consisting of a bell [...]
2. (computer hardware) A peripheral device; an item of hardware.
3. A project or scheme, often designed to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice.

   • His device is against Babylon, to destroy it.

   • He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

   • 1827 Hallam, Henry, The English Constitution, Harper

     Their recent device of demanding benevolences.
4. (Ireland) An improvised explosive device, home-made bomb
   • 1979 Stiff Little Fingers, "Suspect Device":

     Inflammable material is planted in my head / It's a suspect device that's left 2000 dead

   • 2014 September 3, Cliodhna Russell, The Journal "A viable device was found in Cavan today, it has now been made safe"

     THE ARMY BOMB Disposal Team rendered safe a viable device in Cavan this afternoon.

   • 2014 August 3, Louise Kelly & Conor Feehan "Suspect device found at shopping centre revealed as hoax" Irish Independent

     The army bomb squad carried out two controlled explosions on the device. It was later found that the suspect device was a hoax and not a viable explosive.

5. (rhetoric) A technique that an author or speaker uses to evoke an emotional response in the audience; a rhetorical device.
7. (heraldry) A motto, emblem, or other mark used to distinguish the bearer from others. A device differs from a badge or cognizance primarily because as it is a personal distinction, and not a badge borne by members of the same house successively.
   • 1736. O'Callaghan, Edmund Bailey. The Documentary History of the State of New York Chapter I, Article III: Enumeration of the Indian Tribes.

     The devices of these savages are the serpent, the Deer, and the Small Acorn.

8. (archaic) Power of devising; invention; contrivance.
   • 1824. Landor, Walter Savage "King Henry IV and Sir Arnold Savage" from Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, page 44

     Moreover I must have instruments of mine own device, weighty, and exceeding costly

   • 1976. The Eagles, "Hotel California"

     And she said,

     "We are all prisoners here,

     Of our own device"

9. (law) An image used in whole or in part as a trademark or service mark.
10. (printing) An image or logo denoting official or proprietary authority or provenience.
    • 1943 United States Post Office Department. A Description of United States Postage Stamps / Issued by the Post Office Department from July 1, 1847, to April 1, 1945 [sic], USGPO, Washington, p1:

      Prior to the issuance of the first stamps, letters accepted by postmasters for dispatch were marked "Paid" by means of pen and ink or hand stamps of various designs. [...] To facilitate the handling of mail matter, some postmasters provided special stamps or devices for use on letters as evidence of the prepayment of postage.

11. (obsolete) A spectacle or show.
12. (obsolete) Opinion; decision.

Synonyms

• (piece of equipment): apparatus, appliance, equipment, gadget, design, contrivance
• (project or scheme): scheme, project, stratagem, artifice
• (obsolete, power of devising): invention, contrivance

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Slovene

Noun

device

1. genitive singular of devica
2. nominative plural of devica
3. accusative plural of devica

English

Etymology

From Middle English gere, a borrowing from Old Norse gervi, from Proto-Germanic *garwijan? (“to prepare”). See also adjective yare, yar from the same root via Old English.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: gîr, IPA^(key): /???(?)/
• (US) enPR: gîr, IPA^(key): /???/
• Rhymes: -??(r)

Noun

gear (countable and uncountable, plural gears)

1. (uncountable) Equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor.
2. Clothing; garments.
3. (obsolete) Goods; property; household items.

   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (sometimes spelt Raphe Robynson) (translator), Utopia (originally written by Sir Thomas More)

4. (countable) A wheel with grooves (teeth) engraved on the outer circumference, such that two such devices can interlock and convey motion from one to the other; a gear wheel.

   Synonyms: cog, cogwheel, gearwheel

5. (countable, automotive, cycling) A particular combination or choice of interlocking gears, such that a particular gear ratio is achieved.
6. (countable, automotive) A configuration of the transmission of a motor car so as to achieve a particular ratio of engine to axle torque.
7. (aviation) Ellipsis of landing gear.

8. (slang) Recreational drugs, including steroids.
   • 2003, Marianne Hancock, Looking for Oliver (page 90)

9. (uncountable, archaic) Stuff.
   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 113:

10. (obsolete) Business matters; affairs; concern.
11. (obsolete, Britain, dialect) Anything worthless; nonsense; rubbish.
    • (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)
    • March 29, 1549, Hugh Latimer, the fourth sermon preached before King Edward

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

gear (third-person singular simple present gears, present participle gearing, simple past and past participle geared)

1. (engineering, transitive) To provide with gearing; to fit with gears in order to achieve a desired gear ratio.
2. (engineering, intransitive) To be in, or come into, gear.
3. To dress; to put gear on; to harness.
4. (usually with to or toward(s)) To design or devise (something) so as to be suitable (for a particular type of person or a particular purpose).

   This shop is not really geared towards people of our age.

   They have geared the hotel mainly at tourists.

5. (finance) To borrow money in order to invest it in assets.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

gear (comparative more gear, superlative most gear)

1. (chiefly Liverpudlian) great or fantastic

Anagrams

• Ager, GRAE, Gera, Rega, ager, areg, gare, rage

Manx

Alternative forms

• geayr, geyre

Etymology

From Old Irish gér.

Verb

gear (verbal noun gearey)

1. to laugh, chuckle

Adjective

gear

1. sharp, keen
2. sour, acid

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “gér”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Old English

Alternative forms

• ??r, ??r – Anglian

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *j?r?, from Proto-Indo-European *yeh?r-. Cognate with Old Frisian j?r (West Frisian jier), Old Saxon j?r (Middle Low German jâr), Dutch jaar, Old High German j?r (German Jahr), Old Norse ár (Danish/Norwegian/Swedish år, Icelandic/Faroese ár), Gothic ???????????? (j?r). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek ??? (h?ra, “season”), Russian ??? (jara), Czech jaro, Lithuanian jore (“springtime”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jæ???r/

Noun

??ar n (nominative plural ??ar)

1. year
2. the runic character ? (/j/)

Declension

Derived terms

• ??ardagas
• ??arl??
• ?e?ra (uncertain)

Descendants

• Middle English: yeer, here, yere, ?ere
  • English: year
  • Scots: year

Portuguese

Etymology

From an Old Portuguese *gear (compare geo), from Latin gel?re, present active infinitive of gel?. Doublet of the borrowing gelar. Compare also Galician xear.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?i?a?]

Verb

gear (first-person singular present indicative geio, past participle geado)

1. (impersonal) to frost (weather)

Conjugation

Related terms

West Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????r/

Adverb

gear

1. together

Further reading

• “gear (III)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011