Supple vs Hard - What's the difference?

supple | hard |

As an adjective supple

is pliant, flexible, easy to bend.

As a verb supple

is to make or become supple.

As a noun hard is

stove, heater; an enclosed space in which fuel (usually wood) is burned to provide heating, usually for cooking.

supple

English

Adjective

(er)

pliant, flexible, easy to bend

lithe and agile when moving and bending

supple''' joints; '''supple fingers

compliant; yielding to the will of others

a supple horse

* John Locke

If punishment makes not the will supple , it hardens the offender.

Verb

To make or become supple.

* Dryden

The stones suppled into softness as they fell.

* Spenser

The flesh therewith she suppled and did steep.

To make compliant, submissive, or obedient.

* John Locke

a mother persisting till she had bent her daughter's mind and suppled her will

* Barrow

They should supple our stiff willfulness.

hard

English

Adjective

(er)

(label) Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.

# Resistant to pressure.

# (label) Strong.

# (label) High in dissolved calcium compounds.

# Having the capability of being a permanent magnet by being a material with high magnetic coercivity (compare soft).

(label) Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.

# Requiring a lot of effort to do or understand.

#* 1988 , An Oracle , Edmund White

Ray found it hard to imagine having accumulated so many mannerisms before the dawn of sex, of the sexual need to please, of the staginess sex encourages or the tightly capped wells of poisoned sexual desire the disappointed must stand guard over.

#*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author= Nick Miroff

, volume=189, issue=7, page=32, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Mexico gets a taste for eating insects […] , passage=The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard -to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile.}}

# Demanding a lot of effort to endure.

# Severe, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.

# (label) Difficult to resist or control; powerful.

#* (w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)

The stag was too hard for the horse.

#* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

a power which will be always too hard for them

Unquestionable.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 19, author=Kerry Brown, work=The Guardian

, title= Kim Jong-il obituary , passage=Unsurprisingly for a man who went into mourning for three years after the death in 1994 of his own father, the legendary leader Kim Il-sung, and who in the first 30 years of his political career made no public statements, even to his own people, Kim's career is riddled with claims, counter claims, speculation, and contradiction. There are few hard facts about his birth and early years. }}

(label) Having a comparatively larger or a ninety-degree angle.

Sexually aroused.

(label) Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.

(label)

# Plosive.

# Unvoiced

Hard' ''k'', ''t'', ''s'', ''ch'', as distinguished from '''soft , ''g'', ''d'', ''z'', ''j

(label) Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment.

# Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.

# Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in colour or shading.

(label) In the form of a hard copy.

We need both a digital archive and a hard archive.

Synonyms

* (resistant to pressure ): resistant, solid, stony * (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand ): confusing, difficult, puzzling, tough, tricky * (requiring a lot of effort to endure ): difficult, intolerable, tough, unbearable * (severe ): harsh, hostile, severe, strict, tough, unfriendly * (unquestionable ): incontrovertible, indubitable, unambiguous, unequivocal, unquestionable * (of drink ): strong * See also

Antonyms

* (resistant to pressure ): soft * (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand ): easy, simple, straightforward, trite * (requiring a lot of effort to endure ): bearable, easy * (severe ): agreeable, amiable, approachable, friendly, nice, pleasant * (unquestionable ): controvertible, doubtful, ambiguous, equivocal, questionable * (of drink ): ** (low in alcohol ): low-alcohol ** (non-alcoholic ): alcohol-free, soft, non-alcoholic * (of roads) soft * ("sexually aroused"): soft, flaccid

Derived terms

* between a rock and a hard place * die-hard * hard as nails * hard-ass * hardboard * hard-boiled * hard by * hard candy * hard case * hard cheese * hard-coded * hard copy * hardcore * hard disk/hard disc * hard done by * hard drink * hard-edged * harden * hard feelings * hard grass * hard hat * hard head * hard-hearted * hard-hitting * hard knocks * hard labor * hard light * hard-liner * hard lines * hard luck * hardness * hard news * hard-on * hard-pressed * hard radiation * hard sauce * hard science fiction * hard-shell * hard times * hard to come by * hard to please * hard up * hardware * hard water * hard-wire * hardwood * hard work * have it hard * play hard to get * (hard)

Adverb

(er)

(manner) With much force or effort.

He hit the puck hard up the ice.

They worked hard all week.

At the intersection, bear hard left.

The recession hit them especially hard .

Think hard about your choices.

* Dryden

prayed so hard for mercy from the prince

* Shakespeare

My father / Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself.

(manner) With difficulty.

His degree was hard earned.

The vehicle moves hard .

(obsolete) So as to raise difficulties.

* Sir Thomas Browne

The question is hard set.

(manner) Compactly.

The lake had finally frozen hard .

Near, close.

* Bible, Acts xviii. 7

whose house joined hard to the synagogue

* 1999 , (George RR Martin), A Clash of Kings , Bantam 2011, p. 418:

It was another long day's march before they glimpsed the towers of Harrenhal in the distance, hard beside the blue waters of the lake.

Noun

(en noun)

(nautical) A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water

Statistics

* English manner adverbs 1000 English basic words ----