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Comparing   /kəmpˈɛrɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Compare  v. t.  (past & past part. compared; pres. part. comparing)  
1.
To examine the character or qualities of, as of two or more persons or things, for the purpose of discovering their resemblances or differences; to bring into comparison; to regard with discriminating attention. "Compare dead happiness with living woe." "The place he found beyond expression bright, Compared with aught on earth." "Compare our faces and be judge yourself." "To compare great things with small."
2.
To represent as similar, for the purpose of illustration; to liken. "Solon compared the people unto the sea, and orators and counselors to the winds; for that the sea would be calm and quiet if the winds did not trouble it."
3.
(Gram.) To inflect according to the degrees of comparison; to state positive, comparative, and superlative forms of; as, most adjectives of one syllable are compared by affixing "- er" and "-est" to the positive form; as, black, blacker, blackest; those of more than one syllable are usually compared by prefixing "more" and "most", or "less" and "least", to the positive; as, beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful.
Synonyms: To Compare, Compare with, Compare to. Things are compared with each other in order to learn their relative value or excellence. Thus we compare Cicero with Demosthenes, for the sake of deciding which was the greater orator. One thing is compared to another because of a real or fanciful likeness or similarity which exists between them. Thus it has been common to compare the eloquence of Demosthenes to a thunderbolt, on account of its force, and the eloquence of Cicero to a conflagration, on account of its splendor. Burke compares the parks of London to the lungs of the human body.


Compare  v. t.  To get; to procure; to obtain; to acquire (Obs.) "To fill his bags, and richesse to compare."


Compare  v. i.  
1.
To be like or equal; to admit, or be worthy of, comparison; as, his later work does not compare with his earlier. "I should compare with him in excellence."
2.
To vie; to assume a likeness or equality. "Shall pack horses... compare with Caesars?"





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Comparing" Quotes from Famous Books



... at noon about the fact that he and Shakespeare's father were in wool, and he had annoyed a few modest Americans by comparing the petty amount of the elder Shakespeare's trade with the vast total pouring from his own innumerable looms driven with the electricity that the ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1920 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... three protagonists live and move before our eyes. The sixth book may be said to be the heart of the whole poem. The extreme intellectual subtlety of Guido's plea stands quite unrivalled in poetic literature. In comparing it, for its poetic beauty, with other sections, the reader must bear in mind that in a poem of a dramatic nature the dramatic proprieties must be dominant. It would be obviously inappropriate to make Count Guido Franceschini speak with the dignity of the ...
— Life of Robert Browning • William Sharp
... made, to what standard of a just discipline is it that these writers would be understood as appealing? Is it to some ideal, or to some existing and known reality? Would they have England suppose that they are here comparing the actual Oxford with some possible hypothetic or imaginable Oxford,—with some ideal case, that is to say, about which great discussions would arise as to its feasibility,—or that they are comparing it with some known standard of discipline ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey
... long puzzled him and his fellow-servants was explained. On comparing notes, they recollected that whenever the bell sounded, Dash was not to be seen; and there could now be no doubt that immediately he observed them closing their eyes, he had hastened off to the parlour, the bell-rope of which he could easily reach, in ...
— Stories of Animal Sagacity • W.H.G. Kingston
... serious. It is happy for a nation when mere fashions are a topic that can employ its attention; for, though dissipation may lead to graver moments, it commences with ease and tranquillity: and they at least who live before the scene shifts are fortunate, considering and comparing themselves with the various regions who enjoy no parallel felicity. I confess my reflections are couleur de rose at present. I did not much expect to live to see peace, without far more extensive ruin than has fallen ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 • Horace Walpole


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