different between garner vs squander

English

Etymology

From Middle English gerner, from Old French gernier, guernier, variant of grenier, from Latin gr?n?rium (“granary”). Doublet of granary.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????.n?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?????.n?/
• Homophone (non-rhotic accents only): Ghana
• Rhymes: -??(r)n?(r)

Noun

garner (plural garners)

1. A granary; a store of grain.

   • That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets.

   • Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

2. An accumulation, supply, store, or hoard of something.
   • a. 1912, Voltairine de Cleyre, Death Shall Not Part Ye More

     Master, I bring from many wanderings,
     The gathered garner of my years to thee;
     One precious fruit of many rain-blown springs
     And sun-shod summers, ripened over-sea.

Translations

Verb

garner (third-person singular simple present garners, present participle garnering, simple past and past participle garnered) (transitive)

1. To reap grain, gather it up, and store it in a granary.
2. To gather, amass, hoard, as if harvesting grain.
   • 1835, Honoré de Balzac, The Lily of the Valley, Chapter 2

     I walked enormous distances...garnering thoughts even from the heather.

   • 1913, “Anton Berlage” in Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

     He garnered the fruit of his studies in seven volumes.

   • 1956, Andrew North, Plague Ship, Chapter 14

     ...its fleet went out to garner in the elusive but highly succulent fish.

3. (often figuratively) To earn; to get; to accumulate or acquire by some effort or due to some fact

   Synonyms: reap, gain

   He garnered a reputation as a language expert.

   Her new book garnered high praise from the critics.

   His poor choices garnered him a steady stream of welfare checks.

   • 1983, Ronald Reagan, Proclamation 5031

     This country will never forget nor fail to honor those who have so courageously garnered our highest regard.

   • 1999, Bill Clinton, Proclamation 7259

     President Roosevelt garnered the support of our working men and women...

4. (rare) To gather or become gathered; to accumulate or become accumulated; to become stored.
   • 1849, Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H., verse 82

     For this alone on Death I wreak / The wrath that garners in my heart;

Usage notes

The "earn, acquire, accumulate" sense should be read as a figurative extension of the original "harvest, gather" sense, sometimes with some inanimate achievement or choice metaphorically doing the "gathering", as "The new book garnered high praise", or with an indirect object, as, "The new book garnered the author high praise". In this sense, the achievement, choice, or fact is actively gathering something, positive or negative, for its creator, even if that choice is inaction, as in "Failure to try can garner you the disapproval of the industrious".

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:garner.

Translations

Anagrams

• Garren, Graner, Ranger, ranger

Danish

Noun

garner n

1. indefinite plural of garn

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

garner

1. imperative of garnere

English

Etymology

Earliest uses (late 16th c.) "to spend recklessly or prodigiously", also "to scatter over a wide area". Of unknown origin. Perhaps a blend of scatter +? wander.

Compare Danish skvætte (rare)/skvatte (“to splash”) (nominalised: skvæt), Icelandic skvetta (“to squirt”), Swedish skvätta (“to splash”), Norwegian Bokmål skvette.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?skw?nd.?/, [?skw?nd.?]
• (US) IPA^(key): /?skw?n.d?/, [?sk??n.d?]
• Rhymes: -?nd?(?)

Verb

squander (third-person singular simple present squanders, present participle squandering, simple past and past participle squandered)

1. To waste, lavish, splurge; to spend lavishly or profusely; to dissipate.
   • 1746, Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac

     Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.
2. (obsolete) To scatter; to disperse.
3. (obsolete) To wander at random; to scatter.

Usage notes

Squander implies starting with many resources, such as great wealth, and then wasting them (using them up to little purpose or little effect), often ending with little. Particularly used in phrases such as “squander an opportunity” or “squander an inheritance”. It may be used even if one starts with little, though usually in some construction such as “squander what little he had”.

Synonyms

• waste, splurge
• ducks and drakes
• throw away

Translations

References

Anagrams

• quanders