share

share, participate, partake can mean to have, get, use, exercise, experience, or engage in something in common with another or others.

Share implies that one as the original owner or holder grants the part use, enjoyment, or possession to another

{

willing to share her room at the convention

}

{

sharing lunch with a squirrel

}

or that one as the receiver accepts the part use, enjoyment, or possession of something that belongs to or comes from another

{

she asked all to share in the salad

}

{

I shared my sister's room last night when we had a guest

}

{

the employees shared in the profits

}

{

she shared unwillingly the grocer's fate though . . . her dissatisfaction went no farther than nagging— Malamud

}

But share may also take for its subject a group and imply a community of possession or use

{

you do not share the great earth among you fairly— Jefferies

}

{

flowers have always been sinister to me when they are lovely—they seem to share the elusive promise of a woman who is beautiful— Mailer

}

Participate implies that one has or takes a part or a share in a thing (as a work, an experience, or an enterprise)

{

participate in a discussion

}

{

may I ask you whether your wife participates in this undertaking?— Meredith

}

{

the commerce of the United States with foreign nations, is that of the whole United States. Every district has a right to participate in it— John Marshall

}

{

they participated, with a curious, restrained passion, in the speech made by the red-haired man. He spoke for them— I sherwood

}

Partake implies that one accepts, takes, or acquires a portion of a thing (as food, drink, a pleasure, or a burden)

{

both partook of salted bread that a slave proffered— Hervey

}

{

we do not only meet to share each other's burdens, but to partake in each other's joys— Spurgeon

}

{

adventurers who were willing to partake his fortunes— Kinglake

}

or comes to have some of the essential or distinguishing characters of a thing

{

the story itself ceases to be merely melodramatic, and partakes of true drama— T. S. Eliot

}

Analogous words: *communicate, impart: divide, dispense, *distribute