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Compare   /kəmpˈɛr/   Listen
verb
Compare  v. t.  (past & past part. compared; pres. part. comparing)  
1.
To examine the character or qualities of, as of two or more persons or things, for the purpose of discovering their resemblances or differences; to bring into comparison; to regard with discriminating attention. "Compare dead happiness with living woe." "The place he found beyond expression bright, Compared with aught on earth." "Compare our faces and be judge yourself." "To compare great things with small."
2.
To represent as similar, for the purpose of illustration; to liken. "Solon compared the people unto the sea, and orators and counselors to the winds; for that the sea would be calm and quiet if the winds did not trouble it."
3.
(Gram.) To inflect according to the degrees of comparison; to state positive, comparative, and superlative forms of; as, most adjectives of one syllable are compared by affixing "- er" and "-est" to the positive form; as, black, blacker, blackest; those of more than one syllable are usually compared by prefixing "more" and "most", or "less" and "least", to the positive; as, beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful.
Synonyms: To Compare, Compare with, Compare to. Things are compared with each other in order to learn their relative value or excellence. Thus we compare Cicero with Demosthenes, for the sake of deciding which was the greater orator. One thing is compared to another because of a real or fanciful likeness or similarity which exists between them. Thus it has been common to compare the eloquence of Demosthenes to a thunderbolt, on account of its force, and the eloquence of Cicero to a conflagration, on account of its splendor. Burke compares the parks of London to the lungs of the human body.


Compare  v. t.  To get; to procure; to obtain; to acquire (Obs.) "To fill his bags, and richesse to compare."


Compare  v. i.  
1.
To be like or equal; to admit, or be worthy of, comparison; as, his later work does not compare with his earlier. "I should compare with him in excellence."
2.
To vie; to assume a likeness or equality. "Shall pack horses... compare with Caesars?"


noun
Compare  n.  
1.
Comparison. (Archaic) "His mighty champion, strong beyond compare." "Their small galleys may not hold compare With our tall ships."
2.
Illustration by comparison; simile. (Obs.) "Rhymes full of protest, of oath, and big compare."
Beyond compare. See Beyond comparison, under Comparison.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Compare" Quotes from Famous Books



... some strange words. I shall not, as a Mexican, forget them. In the midst of the men he stood like a god, with his great stature, and his bright, strong face. One cannot think of him as of a common mortal. Indeed, I will confess that I could only compare him with the Efreet in the Arabian tale, 'whose nostrils were like trumpets, his eyes like lamps, and who ...
— Remember the Alamo • Amelia E. Barr
... behold a fabric complete and harmonious in all its parts, and eminently worthy of its Almighty Maker;—we behold an ample provision for peace, and order, and harmony, in the whole moral world. But, when we compare with these inductions the actual state of man, as displayed to us in the page of history, and in our own daily observation, the conviction is forced upon us, that some mighty change has taken place in this beauteous system, some marvellous disruption of its moral harmony. The manner in ...
— The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings • John Abercrombie
... dear," said Lady Elizabeth, "was beautiful with the grace and power which comes of training. He was a military man, and you have only to look at a dozen common men in a marching regiment and compare them with a dozen of the same class of men who go on plodding to work and loafing at play in their native villages, to see what people can do for their own figures. His eyes, Selina, were bright with intelligence and trained powers of observation; and they were beautiful with kindliness, and ...
— Melchior's Dream and Other Tales • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... blow; But summer suns and azure skies Warm our hearts and please our eyes. And so we dance and so we sing, And here our woodland trophies bring; Hurra, hurra, hurra, hurra! What can with our Flurry dance compare?" ...
— Michael Penguyne - Fisher Life on the Cornish Coast • William H. G. Kingston
... him—"Perron! He was worth the rest of the performance together, he and the orchestra; but when he had sung it with the Lehmann last year, ach—that was a different matter. He had gone through the part like a Siegfried inspired, and she—ah divine! There was no Bruennhilde to compare with her now. What a night it had been! Do you recall it?" they said—"Do you remember it?" And then the ...
— The Black Cross • Olive M. Briggs


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