distinguish
Definitions
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Distinguished Conduct Medal -
WordNet 3.6
- v distinguish mark as different "We distinguish several kinds of maple"
- v distinguish be a distinctive feature, attribute, or trait; sometimes in a very positive sense "His modesty distinguishes him from his peers"
- v distinguish identify as in botany or biology, for example
- v distinguish make conspicuous or noteworthy
- v distinguish detect with the senses "The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards","I can't make out the faces in this photograph"
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Additional illustrations & photos:
Distinguished Service Cross
Distinguished Service Order
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Interesting fact: Gorillas are considered apes, not monkeys. The way to distinguish between an ape and a monkey is that apes do not have tails
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- Distinguish Not set apart from others by visible marks; to make distinctive or discernible by exhibiting differences; to mark off by some characteristic. "Not more distinguished by her purple vest,
Than by the charming features of her face.""Milton has distinguished the sweetbrier and the eglantine." - Distinguish To become distinguished or distinctive; to make one's self or itself discernible. "The little embryo . . . first distinguishes into a little knot."
- Distinguish To constitute a difference; to make to differ. "Who distinguisheth thee?"
- Distinguish To make distinctions; to perceive the difference; to exercise discrimination; -- with between; as, a judge distinguishes between cases apparently similar, but differing in principle.
- Distinguish To recognize or discern by marks, signs, or characteristic quality or qualities; to know and discriminate (anything) from other things with which it might be confounded; as, to distinguish the sound of a drum. "We are enabled to distinguish good from evil, as well as truth from falsehood.""Nor more can you distinguish of a man,
Than of his outward show." - Distinguish To separate by definition of terms or logical division of a subject with regard to difference; as, to distinguish sounds into high and low. "Moses distinguished the causes of the flood into those that belong to the heavens, and those that belong to the earth."
- Distinguish To separate from others by a mark of honor; to make eminent or known; to confer distinction upon; -- with by or for. "To distinguish themselves by means never tried before."
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- Distinguish Not set apart from others by visible marks; to make distinctive or discernible by exhibiting differences; to mark off by some characteristic. "Not more distinguished by her purple vest,
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
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Interesting fact: The eye of a human can distinguish 500 shades of the gray
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- distinguish To mark or note in a way to indicate difference; mark as distinct or different; characterize; indicate the difference of.
- distinguish To recognize as different or distinct from what is contiguous or similar; perceive or discover the differences or characteristic marks or qualities of; recognize by some distinctive mark; know or ascertain difference in through the senses or the understanding; perceive or make out.
- distinguish Hence To establish, state, or explain a difference or the differences between two or more things; separate by classification or definition; discriminate; set off or apart.
- distinguish To discern critically; judge.
- distinguish To separate from others by some mark of honor or preference; treat with distinction or honor; make eminent or superior; give distinction to.
- distinguish To make a distinction; find or show a difference: followed by between.
- distinguish To become distinct or distinguishable; become differentiated.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
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Interesting fact: Hens can distinguish between all the colors of the rainbow.
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- v.t Distinguish dis-ting′gwish to mark off, set apart (often with from): to recognise by characteristic qualities: to discern critically: to separate by a mark of honour: to make eminent or known
- v.i Distinguish to make or show distinctions or differences, to recognise the difference (with from, between)
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Quotations
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“Sometimes a noble failure serves the world as faithfully as a distinguished success.” -
“He was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong.” -
“I do not know how to distinguish between our waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are?” -
“Learning. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.” -
“I should like to see any kind of a man, distinguishable from a gorilla that some good and even pretty woman could not shape a husband out of.” -
“The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.”
Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
F. distinguer, L. distinguere, distinctum,; di-, = dis-, + stinguere, to quench, extinguish; prob. orig., to prick, and so akin to G. stechen, E. stick, and perh. sting,. Cf. Extinguish
Usage
In literature:
The characters are either not distinguishable, or are distinguished only by peculiarities of the most glaring kind.
"Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3)" by Thomas Babington Macaulay
Many distinguished highland regiments served in Canada during the nineteenth century.
"The Red Watch" by J. A. Currie
The latter was a man of unusual versatility, and was especially distinguished as a linguist.
"As I Remember" by Marian Gouverneur
Distinguish between history, natural history, and natural science.
"Introduction to the Science of Sociology" by Robert E. Park
Here the learned, indefatigable Tisdale taught with distinguished success.
"The History of Dartmouth College" by Baxter Perry Smith
I think I may safely say there is no known rule by which the good can be distinguished from the bad.
"The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise" by M. E. Hard
The bright bay mass of spores within will serve to distinguish the species.
"The Myxomycetes of the Miami Valley, Ohio" by A. P. Morgan
The next step is to distinguish between pruning and training.
"Manual of American Grape-Growing" by U. P. Hedrick
This bird can be distinguished by the white cheeks and throat and the reddish brown foreneck.
"The Bird Book" by Chester A. Reed
To appreciate this point, we must first be careful to distinguish immorality from coarseness.
"A Manual of the Art of Fiction" by Clayton Hamilton
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In poetry:
In your garb and outward clothing
A reservëd plainness use;
By their neatness more distinguished
Than the brightness of their hues.
A reservëd plainness use;
By their neatness more distinguished
Than the brightness of their hues.
"Neatness In Apparel" by Charles Lamb
Another, step by step, will follow
The living imprint of your feet;
But you yourself must not distinguish
Your victory from your defeat.
The living imprint of your feet;
But you yourself must not distinguish
Your victory from your defeat.
"It is not seemly to be famous..." by Boris Pasternak
I did not know the words had ceased,
I thought that he was speaking still,
Nor had distinguished sacred priest
From pagan thorn, from pagan rill.
I thought that he was speaking still,
Nor had distinguished sacred priest
From pagan thorn, from pagan rill.
"At The Gate Of The Convent" by Alfred Austin
Think finally about the secret will
Pretending obedience to Nature, but
Invidiously distinguishing everywhere,
Dividing up the world to conquer it.
Pretending obedience to Nature, but
Invidiously distinguishing everywhere,
Dividing up the world to conquer it.
"Learning the Trees" by Howard Nemerov
And, often, my lamp dies out in the dark,
As I sleep on the easy swell;
Till I fail to distinguish the signs that mark
The poles of Heaven and Hell!
As I sleep on the easy swell;
Till I fail to distinguish the signs that mark
The poles of Heaven and Hell!
"The Mariner's Compass" by Ernest Jones
I distinguish him among all
who are his equals and it seems to me it cannot be,
that like this we go nowhere,
that to survive like this holds no glory.
who are his equals and it seems to me it cannot be,
that like this we go nowhere,
that to survive like this holds no glory.
"The People" by Pablo Neruda
In news:
At 93, Duffy Martin is tall and distinguished-looking, with a neatly trimmed white mustache and goatee.
The folks who can distinguish the gold from the crapola.
Distinguished Actor's Talents Graced Screen, Political Stage.
Sarah and Todd Palin and their TV-centric family are distinguishing.
She discovered the old picture in her mother's closet, but no one seemed to know the identity of the distinguished looking man.
The distinguished founder of the small Greene County community of Switz City.
The Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) can be distinguished from Clark's Grebe by the black cap which extends below the Western Grebe 's eyes.
Al Guay to receive ADA Distinguished Service Award.
Guay to receive Distinguished Service Award.
Albert H Guay , ADA's chief policy advisor emeritus and an Association member for more than 50 years, will receive the ADA Distinguished Service Award for 2012, it was announced at the June meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Guay receives Distinguished Service Award.
Arthur Oliner, one of Merrimac's three founders, has enjoyed one of the most distinguished careers in the history of the microwave industry.
It was a windowless square with no distinguishing features except for a single beige stripe around its middle.
Members of the healing professions who write (generally about themselves) are easy to distinguish from writers who make a living in the healing professions.
Among Hebe 's numerous industry accomplishments is the Distinguished Service Citation from the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1995, one of the few trucking industry executives to earn this distinction.
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In science:
This one distinguishes the quantum electrodynamics (QED) from the quantum chromodynamics: QED does not have the photon-photon interaction.
A String Approximation for Cooper Pair in High-T$_{\bf c}$ superconductivity
The hierarchies with grade one element Λ are distinguished by the fact that pencil of Poisson structures has no local annihilators.
Solutions to WDVV from generalized Drinfeld-Sokolov hierarchies
Primitive conjugacy classes are distinguished as they have no representative in any proper Weyl subgroup W ′ ⊂ W (g).
Solutions to WDVV from generalized Drinfeld-Sokolov hierarchies
Incidentally, we have never maintained that 1 − ∆, where ∆ is the ratio of a nonequilibrium entropy to the corresponding equilibrium entropy, could distinguish different equilibrium distributions.
Response to Comments on "Simple Measure for Complexity"
LD00 termed the process “resonance relaxation” to distinguish from the D-G process and calculated the expected alignment values for grains of different sizes.
Physics of Grain Alignment
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