different between narrow vs modify

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?næ???/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?næ?o?/, /?n??o?/
• (Mary–marry–merry distinction)
• (Mary–marry–merry merger)
• Rhymes: -ær??

Etymology 1

From Middle English narow, narowe, narewe, narwe, naru, from Old English nearu (“narrow, strait, confined, constricted, not spacious, limited, petty; limited, poor, restricted; oppressive, causing anxiety (of that which restricts free action of body or mind), causing or accompanied by difficulty, hardship, oppressive; oppressed, not having free action; strict, severe”), from Proto-Germanic *narwaz (“constricted, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ner- (“to turn, bend, twist, constrict”). Cognate with Scots naro, narow, narrow (“narrow”), North Frisian naar, noar, noor (“narrow”), Saterland Frisian noar (“bleak, dismal, meager, ghastly, unwell”), Saterland Frisian Naarwe (“scar”), West Frisian near (“narrow”), Dutch naar (“dismal, bleak, ill, sick”), Low German naar (“dismal, ghastly”), German Narbe (“scar”), Norwegian norve (“a clip, staple”), Icelandic njörva- (“narrow-”, in compounds).

Adjective

narrow (comparative narrower, superlative narrowest)

1. Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
2. Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
   • 1675, John Wilkins, Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion

     The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.

3. (figuratively) Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.

4. Contracted; of limited scope; bigoted

5. Having a small margin or degree.
6. (dated) Limited as to means; straitened

   narrow circumstances

7. Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
   • a. 1719, George Smalridge, The Hopes of a Recompense from Men must not be our chief Aim in doing Good

     a very narrow […] and stinted charity

8. Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
9. (phonetics) Formed (as a vowel) by a close position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate; or (according to Bell) by a tense condition of the pharynx; distinguished from wide.

Antonyms

• wide
• broad

Related terms

• narrowly
• narrowness

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

narrow (plural narrows)

1. (chiefly in the plural) A narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.
   • 1858', William Gladstone, Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age

     Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow.

Etymology 2

From Middle English narwen (“to narrow”); see there for more details, but ultimately derived from the noun.

Verb

narrow (third-person singular simple present narrows, present participle narrowing, simple past and past participle narrowed)

1. (transitive) To reduce in width or extent; to contract.

2. (intransitive) To get narrower.

3. (of a person or eyes) To partially lower one's eyelids in a way usually taken to suggest a defensive, aggressive or penetrating look.

4. (knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
5. (transitive, programming) To convert to a data type that cannot hold as many distinct values.

   Antonym: widen

Synonyms

• taper

Derived terms

• narrow down
• renarrow

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English modifien, from Middle French modifier, from Latin modificare (“to limit, control, regulate, deponent”), from modificari (“to measure off, set bound to, moderate”), from modus (“measure”) + facere (“to make”); see mode.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?d?fa?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?d?fa?/
• Hyphenation: mod?i?fy

Verb

modify (third-person singular simple present modifies, present participle modifying, simple past and past participle modified)

1. (transitive) To change part of.
2. (intransitive) To be or become modified.
3. (transitive) To set bounds to; to moderate.
4. (grammar, transitive) To qualify the meaning of.
   • 1977, Linda R. Waugh, A Semantic Analysis of Word Order: Position of the Adjective in French

     There is inherently no ordering to the modification and no hierarchy of modification: that is, both adjectives modify the substantive and both apply equally to the substantive...

   • 2016, Allen Ascher, The New Harbrace Guide: Genres for Composing

     Adjectives modify nouns.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• adapt, alter, amend, revamp, rework

Related terms

• modification

Derived terms

• modifier

Translations

References

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

Anagrams

• domify