English Synonyms and Antonyms

friendship. Friendship implies some degree of equality, while love does not; we can speak of man's love
toward God, not of his friendship for God. (There is more latitude in the use of the concrete noun friend;
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
150

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Abraham was called "the friend of God;" Christ was called "the friend of sinners.") Compare
ACQUAINTANCE; LOVE.
Antonyms:
See synonyms for BATTLE; ENMITY; FEUD; HATRED.
Prepositions:
The friendship of one person for or toward another, or the friendship between them.
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FRIGHTEN.
Synonyms:
affright, appal, cow, dismay, scare, alarm, browbeat, daunt, intimidate, terrify.
One is frightened by a cause of fear addressed directly and suddenly to the senses; he is intimidated by an
apprehension of contingent consequences dependent on some act of his own to be done or forborne; the means
of intimidation may act through the senses, or may appeal only to the intellect or the sensibilities. The sudden
rush of an armed madman may frighten; the quiet leveling of a highwayman's pistol intimidates. A savage
beast is intimidated by the keeper's whip. Employers may intimidate their employees from voting contrary to
their will by threat of discharge; a mother may be intimidated through fear for her child. To browbeat or cow
is to bring into a state of submissive fear; to daunt is to give pause or check to a violent, threatening, or even a
brave spirit. To scare is to cause sudden, unnerving fear; to terrify is to awaken fear that is overwhelming.
Compare ALARM.
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FRUGALITY.
Synonyms:
economy, parsimony, saving, sparing, miserliness, providence, scrimping, thrift. parsimoniousness, prudence,
Economy is a wise and careful administration of the means at one's disposal; frugality is a withholding of
expenditure, or sparing of supplies or provision, to a noticeable and often to a painful degree; parsimony is
excessive and unreasonable saving for the sake of saving. Frugality exalted into a virtue to be practised for its
own sake, instead of as a means to an end, becomes the vice of parsimony. Miserliness is the denying oneself
and others the ordinary comforts or even necessaries of life, for the mere sake of hoarding money. Prudence
and providence look far ahead, and sacrifice the present to the future, saving as much as may be necessary for
that end. (See PRUDENCE.) Thrift seeks not merely to save, but to earn. Economy manages, frugality saves,
providence plans, thrift at once earns and saves, with a view to wholesome and profitable expenditure at a
fitting time. See ABSTINENCE.
Antonyms:
abundance, bounty, liberality, opulence, waste, affluence, extravagance, luxury, riches, wealth.
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Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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GARRULOUS.
Synonyms:
chattering, loquacious, talkative, verbose.
Garrulous signifies given to constant trivial talking. Chattering signifies uttering rapid, noisy, and
unintelligible, or scarcely intelligible, sounds, whether articulate words or such as resemble them; chattering
is often used of vocal sounds that may be intelligible by themselves but are ill understood owing to confusion
of many voices or other cause. The talkative person has a strong disposition to talk, with or without an
abundance of words, or many ideas; the loquacious person has an abundant flow of language and much to say
on any subject suggested; either may be lively and for a time entertaining; the garrulous person is tedious,
repetitious, petty, and self-absorbed. Verbose is applied to utterances more formal than conversation, as to
writings or public addresses. We speak of a chattering monkey or a chattering idiot, a talkative child, a
talkative or loquacious woman, a garrulous old man, a verbose writer. Compare CIRCUMLOCUTION.
Antonyms:
laconic, reserved, reticent, silent, speechless, taciturn.
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GENDER.
Synonym:
sex.
Sex is a distinction among living beings; it is also the characteristic by which most living beings are
distinguished from inanimate things, which are of no sex; gender is a distinction in language partially
corresponding to this distinction in nature; while there are but two sexes, there are in some languages, as in
English and German, three genders. The French language has but two genders and makes the names of all
inanimate objects either masculine or feminine; some languages are without the distinction of gender, and
those that maintain it are often quite arbitrary in its application. We speak of the masculine or feminine
gender, the male or female sex.
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GENERAL.
Synonyms:
common, familiar, ordinary, universal, commonplace, frequent, popular, usual. customary, habitual, prevalent,
everyday, normal, public,
Common signifies frequently occurring, not out of the regular course, not exceptional; hence, not above the
average, not excellent or distinguished, inferior, or even low; common also signifies pertaining to or