different between grasp vs prefer

English

Etymology

From Middle English graspen, grapsen, craspen (“to grope; feel around”), from Old English gr?psan (“to touch, feel”), from Proto-Germanic *graipis?n?. Cognate with German Low German grapsen (“to grab; grasp”), Saterland Frisian Grapse (“double handful”). Compare also Swedish krafsa (“to scatch; scabble”), Norwegian krafse (“to scramble”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????sp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??æsp/
• Rhymes: -æsp

Verb

grasp (third-person singular simple present grasps, present participle grasping, simple past and past participle grasped)

1. To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
3. To understand.

   I have never been able to grasp the concept of infinity.

4. To take advantage of something, to seize, to jump at a chance.

Synonyms

• (grip): clasp, grip, hold tight; See also Thesaurus:grasp
• (understand): comprehend, fathom
• (take advantage): jump at the chance, jump on

Derived terms

• begrasp
• foregrasp
• grasp the nettle

Related terms

Translations

Noun

grasp (plural grasps)

1. (sometimes figuratively) Grip.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
3. Understanding.
   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 13:

     There is for the mind but one grasp of happiness: from that uppermost pinnacle of wisdom, whence we see that this world is well designed.

4. That which is accessible; that which is within one's reach or ability.

Translations

Anagrams

• ARPGs, sprag

English

Alternative forms

• præfer [16th-17th c.]
• preferre [14th-17th c.]

Etymology

From Middle English preferren, from Anglo-Norman preferer and Old French preferer, from Latin praefer?, praeferre. Displaced native Middle English foresettan and foreberan.

Pronunciation

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

Verb

prefer (third-person singular simple present prefers, present participle preferring, simple past and past participle preferred)

1. (transitive) To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better. [from 14^thc.]

   I'd prefer it if you didn't do it.

   • "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."
2. (transitive, now dated) To advance, promote (someone or something). [from 14^thc.]
   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 67,^[1]

     […] she was one of my Master’s Captives. For this Reason, I presume, it was, that she took so much Compassion upon me; considering herself a Slave in a strange Country, and only preferr’d to my Master’s Bed by Courtesy.

3. (transitive) To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges"). [from 16^thc.]
   • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 5, p. 137,^[2]

     At length the Maroons, who were delighted to have him with them, became discontented with his absence, and for several years, during the sessions of the House of Assembly, preferred repeated complaints against him.

4. (obsolete, transitive) To put forward for acceptance; to introduce, recommend (to). [16^th-19^thc.]
   • 1630, John Smith, The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine Iohn Smith, London: Thomas Slater, Chapter 1, p. 2,^[3]

     one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King Iames.

   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, Volume One, Chapter 17,^[4]

     Such were the arguments which my will boldly preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current, and which conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept […].

Usage notes

• The verb can be used in three different forms:
  1. prefer + noun + to (or over) + noun. Example: I prefer coffee to tea.
  2. prefer + gerund + to (or over) + gerund. Example: I prefer skiing to swimming.
  3. prefer + full infinitive + rather than + bare infinitive. Example: I prefer to die honorably rather than live in shame. If the second verb is the same as the first, it can be elided: I prefer to eat fish rather than meat.

Inflection

Synonyms

• forechoose

Antonyms

• disprefer

Related terms

• nonpreferred
• preferable / preferrable
• preference
• preferendum
• preferential
• preferer / preferrer
• preferment
• preferred creditor, preferred provider, preferred stock, preferred stockholder
• unpreferred
• prelate

Translations

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [pre?fer]

Verb

prefer

1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of prefera