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Havoc vs Overthrow - What's the difference?

havoc | overthrow | Related terms |

Havoc is a related term of overthrow.


As nouns the difference between havoc and overthrow

is that havoc is widespread devastation, destruction while overthrow is a removal, especially of a ruler or government, by force or threat of force or overthrow can be (sports) a throw that goes too far.

As verbs the difference between havoc and overthrow

is that havoc is to pillage while overthrow is to throw down to the ground, to overturn or overthrow can be (intransitive) to throw (something) so that it goes too far.

As an interjection havoc

is a cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.

havoc

English

Alternative forms

* havock (e.g. in Milton)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • widespread devastation, destruction
  • * Bible, Acts viii. 3
    • As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.
  • * Addison
    • Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make / Among your works!
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1918 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=The People that Time Forgot , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=But when I had come to that part of the city which I judged to have contained the relics I sought I found havoc that had been wrought there even greater than elsewhere. }}
  • mayhem

    • Usage notes

    The noun havoc is most often used in the set phrase wreak havoc. Old Hungarian Goulash?, The Grammarphobia Blog, October 31, 2008

    Derived terms

    * play havoc, raise havoc, wreak havoc, cry havoc, break havoc

    Verb

  • To pillage.
  • * 1599 , , Henry V , Act I, Scene II:
    • To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
  • To cause .

    • Usage notes

    As with other verbs ending in vowel + -c, The gerund-participle is sometimes spelled havocing, and the preterite and past participle is sometimes spelled havoced; for citations using these spellings, see their respective entries. However, the spellings havocking and havocked are far more common. Compare panic, picnic.

    References

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.
  • * Toone
    • Do not cry havoc , where you should but hunt / With modest warrant.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Cry "havoc", and let slip the dogs of war!

    overthrow

    English

    Etymology 1

    From .

    Verb

  • To throw down to the ground, to overturn.
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , John II:
    • And he made a scourge of smale cordes, and drave them all out off the temple, bothe shepe and oxen, and powred doune the changers money, and overthrue their tables.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • His wife overthrew the table.
  • To bring about the downfall of (a government, etc.), especially by force.
    • I hate the current government, but not enough to want to overthrow them.
  • * Dryden
    • When the walls of Thebes he overthrew .
  • * Shakespeare
    • [Gloucester] that seeks to overthrow religion.
    Derived terms
    * overthrowal

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A removal, especially of a ruler or government, by force or threat of force.
  • *
    • What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race!
    Hypernyms
    * (removal by force) downfall
    Coordinate terms
    * (removal by force) collapse

    Etymology 2

    Verb

  • (intransitive) To throw (something) so that it goes too far.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (sports) A throw that goes too far.
    • He overthrew first base, for an error.
  • (cricket) A run scored by the batting side when a fielder throws the ball back to the infield, whence it continues to the opposite outfield.

    • Quotations

    * * (seeCites)