Vague vs Van - What's the difference?
vague | van |
Not clearly expressed; stated in indefinite terms.
*
*2004: , Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage
*:Throughout the first week of his presidency, Dulles and Bissell continued to brief Kennedy on their strategy for Cuba, but the men were vague and their meetings offered little in the way of hard facts.
Not having a precise meaning.
:
Not clearly defined, grasped, or understood; indistinct; slight.
:
Not clearly felt or sensed; somewhat subconscious.
:
Not thinking or expressing one’s thoughts clearly or precisely.
Lacking expression; vacant.
Not sharply outlined; hazy.
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title=
, passage=He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.}}
Wandering; vagrant; vagabond.
*Sir (c.1564-1627)
*:to set upon the vague villains
*(John Keats) (1795-1821)
*:She danced along with vague , regardless eyes.
(obsolete) A wandering; a vagary.
An indefinite expanse.
* Lowell
To wander; to roam; to stray.
* Holland
A (covered) vehicle used for carrying goods or people, usually roughly cuboid in shape, longer and higher than a car but smaller than a truck.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.}}
(British) A railway carriage.
(UK, dated) A light wagon, either covered or open, used by tradesmen and others for the transportation of goods.
.
* 1667 , (John Milton),
* 1698 , Ned Ward, The London Spy
* 1965 , translated by Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan, '', book 4 ''Vir??a Parva , section 33, page 84:
.
To transport in a van or similar vehicle (especially of horses).
* 1966 , United States Congress, Senate, Committee on Commerce:
* 1999 , Bonnie Bryant, Changing Leads , p. 53:
(mining) To wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel.
A fan or other contrivance, such as a sieve, for winnowing grain.
A wing with which the air is beaten.
* Milton
* Dryden
As a verb vague
is .As an abbreviation van is
.vague
English
Adjective
(er)“Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./1/2
Synonyms
* obscure * ambiguousNoun
(en noun)- (Holinshed)
- The gray vague of unsympathizing sea.
Verb
(vagu)- [The soul] doth vague and wander.
External links
* * * ----van
English
Etymology 1
Short for caravan.Noun
(en noun)Paradise Lost, book 5, lines 588–590:
- Ten thousand thousand Ensignes high advanc'd, / Standards, and Gonfalons twixt Van and Reare / Streame in the Aire, and for distinction serve
- Then a bumper to the Queen led the van of our good wishes, another to the Church Established, a third was left to the whim of the toaster
- Bh??ma then outlined the following strategy: “… Let Kar?a, clad in armour, stand in the van . And I shall command the entire army in the rear.”
Derived terms
* detector van * divvy van * driving van trailer * goods van * panel van * * white van manSee also
* lorry * transit (UK) * truckVerb
(vann)- I have to have a license to own them, a license to train them, my jockey has to have a license to ride them, the van company must have a license to van them, and the black shoe man must have a license to shoe them.
- [They] had their own horses, but they hadn't bothered to van them over to Pine Hollow for this outing.
Etymology 2
(etyl)Verb
(vann)- (Raymond)
Etymology 3
(etyl) (lena) : compare (etyl) van and English (l), (l).Noun
(en noun)- So Satan fell; and strait a fiery globe / Of Angels on full sail of wing flew nigh, / Who on their plumy vans receiv'd him soft
- He wheeled in air, and stretched his vans' in vain; / His ' vans no longer could his flight sustain.