different between fringe vs define

English

Etymology

From Middle English frenge, from Old French frenge, from Vulgar Latin *frimbia, metathesis of Latin fimbriae (“fibers, threads, fringe”, plural). (Cognates include German Franse and Danish frynse.) Doublet of fimbria.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f??nd?/
• Rhymes: -?nd?

Noun

fringe (plural fringes)

1. A decorative border.

   the fringe of a picture

2. A marginal or peripheral part.
   • 1673, Jeremy Taylor, Heniaytos: A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year […]

     the confines of grace and the fringes of repentance
3. Those members of a political party, or any social group, holding unorthodox views.
4. The periphery of a town or city (or other area).
5. (Britain) Synonym of bangs: hair hanging over the forehead, especially a hairstyle where it is cut straight across.

   Her fringe is so long it covers her eyes.

   • 1915, W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

     In a few minutes Mrs. Athelny appeared. She had taken her hair out of the curling pins and now wore an elaborate fringe.

   • “No.” Astrid?s tone dismissed Sophie and the fringe as she galloped off to a new topic.

   • 2009, Geraldine Biddle-Perry, Sarah Cheang, Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion, page 231,

     Set against the seductive visual and textual imagery of these soft-focus fantasy worlds, the stock list details offer the reader a very real solution to achieving the look themselves, ‘Hair, including coloured fringes (obtainable from Joseph, £3.50) by Paul Nix’ (Baker 1972a: 68).

6. (physics) A light or dark band formed by the diffraction of light.

   interference fringe

7. Non-mainstream theatre.

   The Fringe; Edinburgh Fringe; Adelaide Fringe

8. (botany) The peristome or fringe-like appendage of the capsules of most mosses.
9. (golf) The area around the green
10. (Australia) Used attributively with reference to Aboriginal people living on the edge of towns etc.
    • 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo 2012, p. 20:

      All the fringe people thought it was such a good house, ingenious in fact, and erected similar makeshift housing for themselves.

11. (television, radio) A daypart that precedes or follows prime time.

Synonyms

• (members of a political party, or any social group, holding unorthodox views): fringe group
• (periphery of a town or city): outskirts

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

fringe (not comparable)

1. Outside the mainstream.

Synonyms

• alternative
• nonmainstream

Translations

Verb

fringe (third-person singular simple present fringes, present participle fringing, simple past and past participle fringed)

1. (transitive) To decorate with fringe.
2. (transitive) To serve as a fringe.

Translations

Anagrams

• Finger, finger

English

Etymology

From Middle English definen, from Old French definer, variant of definir, from Latin d?f?ni? (“limit, settle, define”), from d? + f?ni? (“set a limit, bound, end”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??fa?n/
• Rhymes: -a?n

Verb

define (third-person singular simple present defines, present participle defining, simple past and past participle defined)

1. To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.

   • Rings […] very distinct and well defined.

2. (obsolete) To settle, decide (an argument etc.) [16th-17th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.3:

     These warlike Champions, all in armour shine, / Assembled were in field the chalenge to define.

3. To express the essential nature of something.

4. To state the meaning of a word, phrase, sign, or symbol.

5. To describe, explain, or make definite and clear; used to request the listener or other person to elaborate or explain more clearly his or her intended meaning of a word or expression.

6. To demark sharply the outlines or limits of an area or concept.

7. (mathematics) To establish the referent of a term or notation.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

define (plural defines)

1. (programming) A kind of macro in source code that replaces one text string with another wherever it occurs.
   • 1996, James Gosling, Henry McGilton, The Java Language Environment

     From the computer programming perspective, Java looks like C and C++ while discarding the overwhelming complexities of those languages, such as typedefs, defines, preprocessor, unions, pointers, and multiple inheritance.

   • 1999, Ian Joyner, Objects unencapsulated: Java, Eiffel, and C++ (page 309)

     Anyone who has attempted to do OO programming in a conventional language using defines will find out that it is impossible to realize the benefits easily, if at all, without compiler support.

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• feed-in, feedin', infeed

Galician

Verb

define

1. third-person singular present indicative of definir
2. second-person singular imperative of definir

Portuguese

Verb

define

1. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present indicative of definir
2. second-person singular (tu, sometimes used with você) affirmative imperative of definir

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de?fine/, [d?e?fi.ne]

Verb

define

1. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of definir.
2. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of definir.

Turkish

Etymology

From Arabic ?????? (daf?na).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de.fi??ne/

Noun

define

1. treasure trove

Declension

References

• define in Turkish dictionaries at Türk Dil Kurumu