different between stir vs pique

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

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?k, IPA^(key): /pi?k/
• Homophones: peak, peek, peke
• Rhymes: -i?k

Etymology 1

From Middle French pique (“a prick, sting”), from Old French pic (“a sharp point”). Doublet of pike (“long pointed weapon”). Compare Spanish picar (“to sting”).

Noun

pique (countable and uncountable, plural piques)

1. A feeling of enmity; ill-feeling, animosity; a transient feeling of wounded pride.
   • 1667, Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety

     Men take up piques - and displeasures at others.

   • 1854, Thomas De Quincey, On War

     Wars had arisen […] upon a personal pique.

2. A feeling of irritation or resentment, awakened by a social slight or injury; offence, especially taken in an emotional sense with little thought or consideration.
   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 7:

     This defiance was not a fit of pique, but a matter of principle.

   • 1957, Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, Sweet Smell of Success

     You think this is a personal thing with me? Are you telling me I think of this in terms of a personal pique?

3. (obsolete) Keenly felt desire; a longing.
   • 1684, Samuel Butler, Hudibras

     Though it have the pique, and long, / 'Tis still for something in the wrong.

Translations

Verb

pique (third-person singular simple present piques, present participle piquing, simple past and past participle piqued)

1. (transitive) To wound the pride of; to excite to anger.

   Synonyms: sting, nettle, irritate, fret

   • 1913, D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 11

2. (reflexive) To take pride in; to pride oneself on.

3. (transitive) To stimulate (a feeling, emotion); to offend by slighting; to excite (someone) to action by causing resentment or jealousy.

   Synonyms: excite, stimulate

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Prior to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 2

From French pic.

Noun

pique (plural piques)

1. (card games) In piquet, the right of the elder hand to count thirty in hand, or to play before the adversary counts one.

Verb

pique (third-person singular simple present piques, present participle piquing, simple past and past participle piqued)

1. (card games, transitive) To score a pique against.

Etymology 3

From Spanish pique, from Central Quechua piki.

Noun

pique (plural piques)

1. A chigger or jigger, Tunga penetrans.

Etymology 4

From French piqué, past participle of piquer (“to prick, quilt”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pi?ke?/

Noun

pique (countable and uncountable, plural piques)

1. A durable ribbed fabric made from cotton, rayon, or silk.

References

• “pique”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• Equip., equip, pequi

French

Etymology

Deverbal of piquer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pik/

Noun

pique f (plural piques)

1. pike, lance

pique m (plural piques)

1. (card games) spade (as a card suit)

Descendants

• ? German: Pik n

  ? Macedonian: ??? m (pik)

  ? Serbo-Croatian: m

  Cyrillic: ????

  Latin: p?k

  ? Slovene: pík

• ? Polish: pik m

Verb

pique

1. inflection of piquer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative
   2. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   3. second-person singular imperative

See also

Further reading

• “pique” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Noun

pique f (plural piques)

1. Alternative form of picque

Portuguese

Etymology

From Middle French picque (“a prick, sting”), from Old French pic (“a sharp point”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pi.ki/
• (South Brazil) IPA^(key): /?pi.ke/

Noun

pique m (plural piques)

1. any spear

   Synonyms: hasta, lança

2. or specifically a pike

   Synonym: chuço

3. hide-and-seek (game)

   Synonyms: esconde-esconde, pique-esconde

Derived terms

• a pique, ir a pique

Verb

pique

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of picar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of picar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of picar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of picar

Spanish

Etymology

From picar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pike/, [?pi.ke]

Noun

pique m (plural piques)

1. (card games) spade
2. downward movement
   1. jump, leap
3. hit, fix (of drugs)
4. rivalry, loggerheads
5. grudge match

Derived terms

Verb

pique

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of picar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of picar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of picar.