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Challenge vs Desert - What's the difference?

challenge | desert |

As a verb challenge

is .

As a noun desert is

desert.

As an adjective desert is

deserted.

challenge

Noun

(en noun)
  • A confrontation; a dare.
  • # An instigation or antagonization intended to convince a person to perform an action they otherwise would not.
  • #*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-11-30, volume=409, issue=8864, magazine=(The Economist), author=Paul Davis
  • , title= Letters: Say it as simply as possible , passage=Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion” in a chart (“ On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia?}}
  • # A bid to overcome something.
  • #* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 5, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool , passage=For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.}}
  • # (sports) An attempt to take possession; a tackle
  • #* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Saj Chowdhury, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Wolverhampton 1-2 Newcastle , passage=Argentine midfielder Jonas Gutierrez added a superb second when he surged past four challenges to fire in low.}}
  • # A summons to fight a duel; also, the letter or message conveying the summons.
  • # The act of a sentry in halting a person and demanding the countersign, or (by extension) the action of a computer system demanding a password, etc.
  • A difficult task, especially one that the person making the attempt finds more enjoyable because of that difficulty.
  • (label) A procedure or action.
  • # (legal, rare) A judge's interest in the result of the case for which he or she should not be allowed to sit the case, e.g. a conflict of interest.
  • # The act of appealing a ruling or decision of a court of administrative agency.
  • # The act of seeking to remove a judge, arbitrator or other judicial or semi-judicial figure for reasons of alleged bias or incapacity.
  • # (label) An exception to a person as not legally qualified to vote. The challenge must be made when the ballot is offered.
  • (label) The opening and crying of hounds at first finding the scent of their game.
  • Verb

    (challeng)
  • To invite someone to take part in a competition.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • By this I challenge him to single fight.
  • To dare someone.
  • * (John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • I challenge any man to make any pretence to power by right of fatherhood.
  • To dispute something.
  • (label) To make a formal objection to a juror.
  • (label) To claim as due; to demand as a right.
  • * (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • Challenge better terms.
  • (label) To censure; to blame.
  • * Holland
  • He complained of the emperorfrom them.
  • (label) To question or demand the countersign from (one who attempts to pass the lines).
  • (label) To object to the reception of the vote of, e.g. on the ground that the person is not qualified as a voter.
  • Synonyms

    *

    desert

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) from the (etyl) deserte, from

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (senseid)(usually in plural) That which is deserved or merited; a just punishment or reward
  • * 1600 , (John Dowland), (Flow My Tears)
  • From the highest spire of contentment / my fortune is thrown; / and fear and grief and pain for my deserts / are my hopes, since hope is gone.
  • * 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21
  • "Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame to me to hear such a word. I would not hear it of you. And I shall not hear it from you. May God judge me by my deserts , and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!"
  • * A. Hamilton
  • His reputation falls far below his desert .
    Derived terms
    * just deserts

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.
  • * (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • Not thus the land appear'd in ages past, / A dreary desert and a gloomy waste.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
  • , chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.}}
  • (label) Any barren place or situation.
  • * 1858 , William Howitt, Land, Labour, and Gold; Or, Two Years in Victoria (page 54)
  • He declared that the country was an intellectual desert ; that he was famishing for spiritual aliment, and for discourse on matters beyond mere nuggets, prospectings, and the price of gold.
  • * 2006 , Philip N. Cooke, Creative Industries in Wales: Potential and Pitfalls (page 34)
  • So the question that is commonly asked is, why put a media incubator in a media desert and have it managed by a civil servant?

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Abandoned, deserted, or uninhabited; usually of a place.
  • They were marooned on a desert island in the Pacific.
  • * Bible, Luke ix. 10
  • He went aside privately into a desert place.
  • * Gray
  • Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
    Derived terms
    * desert boot * desert island * desert lynx * desert pavement * desert pea * desert rat * desert soil * desert varnish * desertification * food desert * preach in the desert

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To leave (anything that depends on one's presence to survive, exist, or succeed), especially when contrary to a promise or obligation; to abandon; to forsake.
  • You can't just drive off and desert me here, in the middle of nowhere.
  • To leave one's duty or post, especially to leave a military or naval unit without permission.
  • Anyone found deserting will be shot.
    Derived terms
    * deserter * desertion * desert or leave a sinking ship

    Anagrams

    * * English heteronyms ----