different between inch vs toledo

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

Etymology

From Toledo.

Noun

toledo (plural toledos)

1. A sword or sword blade made at Toledo in Spain, a city famous in the 16th and 17th centuries for the excellence of its weapons.
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol I, ch. 31:

     Peregrine's weapon entering a kind of net work in the shell of Godfrey's sword, the blade snapped in two, and left him at the mercy of the soldier, who, far from making an insolent use of the victory he had gained, put up his Toledo with great deliberation […] .

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page xv

     A long toledo, with a hilt of filigrained steel, length of the blade three feet nine inches, finely tapering to a point.

   • 1821, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer, volume 3:

     ‘Fair Neophyte, beautiful Christian,’ answered the stranger, with a diabolical sneer, ‘be it known to you that I regard bolts, and bars, and walls, as much as I did the breakers and rocks of your Indian isle—that I can go where, and retire when I please, without leave asked or taken of your brother’s mastiffs, or Toledos, or spring-guns, and in utter defiance of your mother’s advanced guard of duennas, armed in spectacles, and flanked with a double ammunition of rosaries, with beads as large as—’

Anagrams

• looted, tooled

Spanish

Noun

toledo m (plural toledos)

1. (slang) toilet