different between inch vs stir

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Etymology 1

From Middle English ynche, enche, from Old English ynce, borrowed from Latin uncia (“twelfth part”). Doublet of ounce.

Noun

inch (plural inches)

1. A unit of length equal to one twelfth of a foot, or exactly 2.54 centimetres.
2. (meteorology) The amount of water which would cover a surface to the depth of an inch, used as a measurement of rainfall.
3. The amount of an alcoholic beverage which would fill a glass or bottle to the depth of an inch.
4. (figuratively) A very short distance.

   "Don't move an inch!"

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (inchi)
• ? Korean: ?? (inchi)

Translations

Verb

inch (third-person singular simple present inches, present participle inching, simple past and past participle inched)

1. (intransitive, followed by a preposition) To advance very slowly, or by a small amount (in a particular direction).

   Fearful of falling, he inched along the window ledge.

   • 1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey:

     The window blind had been lowered — Zooey had done all his bathtub reading by the light from the three-bulb overhead fixture—but a fraction of morning light inched under the blind and onto the title page of the manuscript.
2. To drive by inches, or small degrees.
   • 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy

     He gets too far into the soldier's grace / And inches out my master.

3. To deal out by inches; to give sparingly.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• thou
• mil

Etymology 2

From Scottish Gaelic innis

Noun

inch (plural inches)

1. (Scotland) A small island

Usage notes

• Found especially in the names of small Scottish islands, e.g. Inchcolm, Inchkeith.

Anagrams

• Ch'in, Chin, chin, ichn-

Middle English

Noun

inch

1. Alternative form of ynche

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