overt
open
patent
public
ox
bull
bullock
calf
cow
heifer
steer
words in this group except the innocent overhear. While snooping has always designated a particularly sneaky, unsavory way to pry, its conversion from a personal to an electronic technique has given snoop much more sinister connotations than it ever had before. See encroach, MEDDLESOME.
These words refer to things that are made amply evident by direct expression. Overt indicates attitudes, feelings, and behavior that are put into words or acted upon, rather than intimated or suppressed: an overt declaration of his desire to marry her; an overt homosexual; rebellious feelings that had passed the talking stage and were about to become overt. Patent stresses that something is unmistakably obvious and clear: a grasp and discrimination that is patent on every page of the book. The word, however, frequently carries a pejorative tone: a patent lie; patent irresponsibility; the patent invitations of streetwalkers in Picadilly Circus.
Open refers to things done in an honest or unashamed manner, indifferent to criticism or reproof: easy to be open if you have nothing to hide; arguing that the gun laws were open invitations to violence; an open declaration of their stand on the controversial proposal. While a person may be open with his friends about his beliefs, he might still not wish to make public either his affairs or his attitudes. Public, thus, is an extreme case among these words, suggesting a deliberate revealing of oneself to the populace at large: a public announcement that he would no longer be responsible for debts incurred by his wife; a public address on foreign policy; voracious audiences who turn the private lives of movie stars into public scandals. See candid, plain (adj.), truthful.
Antonyms: implicit , private, secret, stealthy .
These words come into comparison in denoting domesticated cattle whether raised for milk and meat or used as draft animals. Ox is a general term when it is used in zoology to refer to any bovine animal, whether wild or tame. Specifically, an ox is an adult castrated male, once widely used to pull carts and ploughs but now common only in underdeveloped countries. Bullock and steer are also adult castrated males, but bullock is more closely related in meaning to ox in that bullock also suggests a draft animal while steers are raised, usually in large herds, for their beef and hides. When one refers to beef cattle in general, it is proper to refer to males, females, and young as steers.
A bull is an adult uncastrated male kept usually for breeding purposes only. In Spain and Spanish America special strains of cattle are -bred to provide bulls for the ring.
Cow and heifer denote female bovines. The cow is the mature female of any variety of cattle, but the word calls to mind the familiar animal that is kept as a milk producer on most farms. Heifer is a young cow, especially one less than three years old who has not yet produced young or given milk.
Calf is the newborn or very young offspring of the cow, and the term applies to either sex. Bull, cow, and calf are also used to denote the male, female, and young of a number of unrelated animals, as elephants, whales, moose, walruses, and alligators.
With various implications, ox, bull, cow, calf, and sometimes heifer are applied figuratively to human beings. Ox suggests slowness, clumsiness, and slow-wittedness: as dumb as an ox; as big as an ox. Bull emphasizes brutish masculine strength and virility: to roar like a bull; a
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wrestler with the strength of a bull. Cow is always applied in a derisive way to an obese and coarse woman, while heifer suggests a young, plump, country girl. The awkwardness and bumbling of a calf is evoked when the term, now literary and obsolescent, is used of a gawky, callow young man.
These words denote sensations of discomfort or suffering. Pain is the most general term, and can be used in place of any of the others in this group. Pain can be of long or short duration, in a local or a general site, and of mil d or strong intensity: anxious about an off-and-on pain in the abdomen. An ache is an often long-lasting pain, usually dull rather than sharp, associated with a particular organ or body part: a stomach ache ; a toothac/ie. A pang is a sudden, sharp but transient pain that is likely to recur: the pangs of hunger. A twinge is very much like a pang, but milder in intensity and often one that causes a muscle to contract: a twinge of rheumatism. A throe (usually found in its plural form) is a violent, often convulsive pain, such as that associated with a mortal wound, the effects of many poisons, or a violent physical process: the throes of childbirth. A sudden, sharp, piercing pain, often followed by a cramp, is called a stitch: a stitch in her side that made her wince.
All of these words except stitch have figurative application to mental or spiritual suffering: the pain of separation; the ache of loneliness; a pang of remorse; the throes of indecision; a twinge of regret. See harm, HURT, MISERY.
Antonyms: health, pleasure , well-being.
These words refer to things, particularly complexions, that are lacking in color. Pale is the most general and informal of these. It is the only word here that can refer to a relative lightness of color that is permanent or natural: pale Scandinavians and swarthy Italians; choosing the palest shade of blue for the bathroom. More often, however, the word suggests a temporary loss of color because of emotion or sickness: growing pale with fear; looking feeble and pale from his long illness. In these cases, it is the change in color that the word emphasizes. The change need not be negative, however: The eastern horizon was pale with the first hints of dawn. Because of the word’s association with illness, it can refer more generally to an undesirable weakness or dullness: a pale performance in an otherwise strong cast. Ashen is a much more restricted intensification of pale’, it refers mainly to an extreme but possibly temporary loss of facial color and usually points to an abnormal or undesirable state: a face ashen with shock; troops that looked haggard and ashen from the long march; the ashen, pinched features typical of undernourished children. The word can also refer to the grayish dull appearance of something that has been vividly colored: storm clouds that turned the bright summer sky ashen and somber. Cadaverous is an even more restricted and more intense substitute for ashen. It refers almost exclusively to a facial or bodily state and indicates a more permanent unhealthy or deathly look. In addition to a pale appearance, the word sug
pain
ache
pang
stitch
throe
twinge
pale
ashen
cadaverous
livid
pallid
wan
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