- perform
- perform vb Perform, execute, discharge, accomplish, achieve, effect, fulfill are comparable when they mean to carry out or into effect.Perform, sometimes merely a formal synonym for do, is more often used with reference to processes than to acts. One performs processes that are lengthy or exacting or ceremonial in character{
perform a play
}{perform a surgical operation
}{perform the marriage service
}{a solemn sacrifice, performed in state— Pope
}One performs acts that are distinguished or striking{perform feats of skill
}When the end rather than the means to the end is stressed, what is performed is, usually something undertaken or pledged{lobbyists perform a legitimate, even necessary, function— Armbrister
}One executes what exists in design or intent by bringing it into being or by putting it into effect{the heads of depart-ments are . . . political or confidential agents . . . merely to execute the will of the president— John Marshall
}{the escape was planned meticulously and executed boldly— Edmond Taylor
}Sometimes execute is used in place of perform of a process involving great skill or a highly exacting technique{few dancers can execute an adagio beautifully
}One discharges duties or obligations when one goes through a required round of tasks{I had discharged my confidential duties as secretary ... to the general satisfaction— De Quincey
}Accomplish usually stresses the completion of a process rather than the means by which it is carried out. One accomplishes something begun or something which there is reason to expect{it took us twenty-three days to accomplish the return journey— Hudson
}{this project was so vast and so quickly accomplished that it has no parallel— Stoumen
}Sometimes accomplish implies the fruitfulness of effort or the value of the results obtained{because of his efforts things are accomplished— Anderson
}{there's very little to be accomplished by telling men anything. You have to show them—Mary Austin
}Achieve adds to accomplish the implication of conquered difficulties. One achieves a work, a task, or an enterprise that is of great importance and that makes unusual demands (as on one's energy, willpower, or resources){the American public schools achieve . . . the task of transforming a heterogeneous selection of mankind into a homogeneous nation— Russell
}Effect implies obstacles to be removed but, unlike achieve, it emphasizes inherent force in the agent rather than such personal qualities as daring and perseverance. Also, it is often predicated of things as well as of persons{only two prisoners effected their escape
}{taxation as an instrument for effecting a more equal distribution of income— Shaw
}{a neurotic general overcome with work may believe he has the power to effect nothing— Mailer
}Fulfill implies a full realization of what exists potentially, or hitherto in conception, or is implicit in the nature or the sense of responsibility of the agent{a law that fails to fulfill its intended end
}{fulfill a promise
}{a sense of the failure of life to fulfill its ultimate expectations— Rees
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
