different between sprinkle vs immerse

English

Etymology

From Middle English sprynklen, sprenkelen, equivalent to sprink +? -le (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Dutch sprenkelen (“to sprinkle”), German Low German sprenkeln (“to sprinkle; dapple”), German sprenkeln (“to sprinkle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sp???k?l/
• Rhymes: -??k?l

Verb

sprinkle (third-person singular simple present sprinkles, present participle sprinkling, simple past and past participle sprinkled)

1. (transitive) To cause (a substance) to fall in fine drops (for a liquid substance) or small pieces (for a solid substance).

   • And the priest shall […] sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord.

   • At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly […] on the floor.

2. (transitive) To cover (an object) by sprinkling a substance on to it.
3. (intransitive) To drip in fine drops, sometimes sporadically.

4. (intransitive) To rain very lightly outside.

5. (transitive) To baptize by the application of a few drops, or a small quantity, of water; hence, to cleanse; to purify.

   • having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience

Quotations

• 1893, Edward F. Bigelow (editor and publisher), The Observer: a Medium of Interchange of Observations for all Students and Lovers of Nature, volume IV, number 4, page 114:

  There is no more beautiful object in the still and shady aisles of the wood than a great patch of the deep green hairy cap moss studded and starred by these little roses that are often scattered over it as thickly as the stars sprinkle the sky.

• April 26th, 1899, Memorial Day Oration of General P. McGlashan, printed in 1902 in Addresses delivered before the Confederate Veterans Association of Savannah by that association:

  As I laid him back on the litter he threw out his arms and clasped me around my neck, drew me towards him and kissed me, saying: "Colonel, I love you." [...] Unnumbered instances like this might be recounted did the time permit it. They sprinkle the whole four years as the stars sprinkle the sky.

• 2010, Donald E. MacKay, Love Is Stronger Than Death, page 91:

  [...] she will remember his words and gaze at the stars. One dark night when the stars sprinkle the heavens, she would call out to the stars and ask the same questions her benefactor had asked; perhaps she will be favored with answers.

Derived terms

• besprinkle
• sprinkler

Translations

Noun

sprinkle (plural sprinkles)

1. A light covering with a sprinkled substance.

2. A light rain shower.
3. An aspersorium or utensil for sprinkling.

Synonyms

• (light covering with a sprinkled substance): sprinkling

Derived terms

• sugar sprinkles

Translations

Anagrams

• plinkers, prinkles, splinker

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin immersus, from immerg?, from in + merg?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??m??(?)s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s

Verb

immerse (third-person singular simple present immerses, present participle immersing, simple past and past participle immersed)

1. (transitive) To place within a fluid (generally a liquid, but also a gas).
   • 1883, The Electrical Journal, page 501:

     ... the two plates of platinum immersed in oxygen and hydrogen gases

   • 1841, William Rhind, A history of the vegetable kingdom, page 110:

     Even after the process of germination has taken place, if the young plant be immersed in an atmosphere of either of those gases [hydrogen and nitrogen], vegetation and life will immediately cease.

   • 1955, George Shortley, Dudley Williams, Elements of Physics for Students of Science and Engineering

     The buoyant force of the atmospheric air on solids and liquids immersed in it is for most purposes negligible compared to the weight of solid or liquid, ...

   Archimedes determined the volume of objects by immersing them in water.

2. (transitive) To involve or engage deeply.

   The sculptor immersed himself in anatomic studies.

3. (transitive, mathematics) To map into an immersion.
   • 2002, Kari Jormakka, Flying Dutchmen: Motion in Architecture (page 40)

     Thus, in mathematical terms a Klein bottle cannot be "embedded" but only "immersed" in three dimensions as an embedding has no self-intersections but an immersion may have them.

Synonyms

• submerge

Derived terms

• immersion
• immersive

Translations

Adjective

immerse (comparative more immerse, superlative most immerse)

1. (obsolete) Immersed; buried; sunk.

Italian

Adjective

immerse f pl

1. feminine plural of immerso

Verb

immerse

1. third-person singular past historic of immergere
2. feminine plural past participle of immergere

Latin

Participle

immerse

1. vocative masculine singular of immersus