different between frenzy vs stir

English

Alternative forms

• phrenzy, phrensy (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English frensy, frenesie, from Old French frenesie, from Latin phrenesis, from Ancient Greek *???????? (*phrén?sis), a later equivalent of ???????? (phrenîtis, “inflammation of the brain”): see frantic and frenetic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f??nzi/

Noun

frenzy (countable and uncountable, plural frenzies)

1. A state of wild activity or panic.

   She went into a cleaning frenzy to prepare for the unexpected guests.
2. A violent agitation of the mind approaching madness; rage.

   • All else is towering frenzy and distraction.

   • 1595-1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5, scene 1:

     The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling.

Derived terms

• feeding frenzy

Related terms

• frantic
• frenetic
• frenzied

Translations

Adjective

frenzy (comparative more frenzy, superlative most frenzy)

1. (obsolete) Mad; frantic.
   • 1678 John Bunyan The Pilgrim's Progress:

     They thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head.

Verb

frenzy (third-person singular simple present frenzies, present participle frenzying, simple past and past participle frenzied)

1. (uncommon) To render frantic.

   • Both goaded on to strife by frenzying hate.

   • Then there is the absorbing, not to say frenzying, interest, which attends our important elections.

2. (rare) To exhibit a frenzy, such as a feeding frenzy.

   • The fresh smell of salt air, the sound of the crashing swell, the soothing immersion in the water, the sight of dolphins playing and fish frenzying beneath my board.

Further reading

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

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /st??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /st?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English stiren, sturien, from Old English styrian (“to be in motion, move, agitate, stir, disturb, trouble”), from Proto-Germanic *sturiz (“turmoil, noise, confusion”), related to Proto-Germanic *staurijan? (“to destroy, disturb”). Cognate with Old Norse styrr (“turmoil, noise, confusion”), German stören (“to disturb”), Dutch storen (“to disturb”).

Verb

stir (third-person singular simple present stirs, present participle stirring, simple past and past participle stirred)

1. (transitive) To incite to action

   Synonyms: arouse, instigate, prompt, excite; see also Thesaurus:incite
2. (transitive) To disturb the relative position of the particles of, a liquid of suchlike, by passing something through it

   Synonym: agitate
3. (transitive) To agitate the content of (a container), by passing something through it.

4. (transitive) To bring into debate; to agitate; to moot.
5. (transitive, dated) To change the place of in any manner; to move.
6. (intransitive) To move; to change one’s position.
7. (intransitive) To be in motion; to be active or bustling; to exert or busy oneself.
8. (intransitive) To become the object of notice; to be on foot.
9. (intransitive, poetic) To rise, or be up and about, in the morning.

   Synonyms: arise, get up, rouse; see also Thesaurus:wake

   • “Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins,” remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: “Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir!”

For more quotations using this term, see Citations:stir.

Usage notes

• In all transitive senses except the dated one (“to change the place of in any manner”), stir is often followed by up with an intensive effect; as, to stir up fire; to stir up sedition.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

stir (countable and uncountable, plural stirs)

1. The act or result of stirring (moving around the particles of a liquid etc.)

2. agitation; tumult; bustle; noise or various movements.
   • 1668, John Denham, Of Prudence (poem).

     Why all these words, this clamour, and this stir?

   • .

     Consider, after so much stir about genus and species, how few words we have yet settled definitions of.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:stir.
3. Public disturbance or commotion; tumultuous disorder; seditious uproar.
   • 1612, Sir John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued

     Being advertised of some stirs raised by his unnatural sons in England.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:stir.
4. Agitation of thoughts; conflicting passions.

Derived terms

• cause a stir
• stirless
• upstir

Translations

Etymology 2

From Romani stariben (“prison”), nominalisation of (a)star (“seize”), causative of ast (“remain”), probably from Sanskrit ???????? (?ti??hati, “stand or remain by”), from ??????? (ti??hati, “stand”).

Noun

stir (countable and uncountable, plural stirs)

1. (slang) Jail; prison.
   • 1928, Jack Callahan, Man's Grim Justice: My Life Outside the Law (page 42)

     Sing Sing was a tough joint in those days, one of the five worst stirs in the United States.

   • The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

Derived terms

• stir-crazy

Anagrams

• ISTR, RTIs, Rist, TRIS, TRIs, Tris, rits, sirt, tris, tris-

Danish

Verb

stir

1. imperative of stirre