- get
- get 1 Get, obtain, procure, secure, acquire, gain, win are comparable and often interchangeable when they mean to come into possession of.Get is very general in its meaning and simple and familiar in its use. Thus, one may get something by fetching{
get a book from the table},}}
}by extracting{get gold from ore},}}
}by receiving{get a present},}}
}or as a return{get interest on a loan
}Obtain is likewise rather general. It may suggest that the thing sought has been long desired or that it has come ink, possession only after the expenditure of considerable effort or the lapse of considerable time{the satisfaction obtained by the sentiment of communion with others, of the breaking down of barriers— Dewey
}{in western New York, where her early education was obtained— Knott
}Procure is likely to suggest planning and contriving over a period of time and the use of unspecified or sometimes questionable means{the Duma laid claim to full power... and on March 15 procured the abdication of the frightened and despondent Nicholas II— Ogg & Zink
}{some gifted spirit on our side procured (probably by larceny) a length of mine fuse— H. G. Wells
}Secure may suggest safe lasting possession or control{the large income and fortune which a prospering business secures for him is of his own making— Hobson
}or it may suggest the gaining of what is hard to come by (as by reason of rarity or competition for possession); thus, one secures, rather than gets or acquires, a rare stamp by offering a higher price than other interested persons will pay{almost absolute safety against infection could be secured by the simple precaution of using safe, potable water— Heiser
}Acquire may suggest devious acquisition{the destruction of that ship by a Confederate cruiser, although it had acquired a British registry in order to avoid capture— Knott
}It may also indicate continued, sustained, or cumulative acquisition{the habit of any virtue, moral or intellectual, cannot be assumed at once, but must be acquired by practice— Grandgent
}Gain often implies competition in acquiring something of value{if a London merchant, however, can buy at Canton for half an ounce of silver, a commodity which he can afterwards sell at London for an ounce, he gains a hundred percent— Smith
}{few men are placed in such fortunate circumstances as to be able to gain office— Oliver
}Win, though often interchangeable with gain, may suggest, as gain does not, favorable qualities leading naturally to the acquisition of something desired despite competition or obstacles{the errors of his time were connected with his labors to remedy them, and win a firmer knowledge than dialectic could supply— H. O. Taylor
}{Mrs. Woolf's fiction is too negligent of the requirements of the common reader to win a wide following— Millett
}Analogous words: fetch, *bring: extract, elicit, extort, *educe, evoke: *receive, accept: seize, *take, grasp, grab, clutch: effect, accomplish, achieve (see PERFORM): *incur, contract, catchContrasted words: *forgo, eschew, abnegate, sacrifice, forbear2 beget, procreate, sire, *generate, engender, breed, propagate, reproduceAnalogous words: see those at BEGET3 *induce, persuade, prevailAnalogous words: *move, actuate, drive, impel: *incite, instigate, abet
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
