Dictionary Definition
distinguish
Verb
1 mark as different; "We distinguish several
kinds of maple" [syn: separate, differentiate, secern, secernate, severalize, severalise, tell, tell
apart]
2 detect with the senses; "The fleeing convicts
were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards"; "I
can't make out the faces in this photograph" [syn: recognize, recognise, discern, pick out,
make
out, tell
apart]
3 be a distinctive feature, attribute, or trait;
sometimes in a very positive sense; "His modesty distinguishes him
form his peers" [syn: mark,
differentiate]
5 identify as in botany or biology, for example
[syn: identify,
discover, key, key out, describe, name]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Alternative spellings
Pronunciation
- , /dɪsˈtɪŋɡwɪʃ/, /dIs"tINgwIS/
- Rhymes with: -ɪŋɡwɪʃ
Verb
- To see someone or something as different from others.
- To see someone or something clearly or distinctly.
- To make one's self noticeably different or better from others through accomplishments.
Derived terms
Translations
To see someone or something as different from
others
- Czech: rozlišit, rozeznat
- Dutch: onderscheiden
- German: unterscheiden
- Hebrew: להבחין (lehavkhyn)
To see someone or something clearly or
distinctly
- German: erkennen
To make one's self noticeably different
- German: sich auszeichnen
Extensive Definition
In law, to
distinguish a case means to
differentiate the facts of
the case before the court
from the facts of a case of precedent where there is an
apparent similarity.
By successfully distinguishing a case, the holding or legal
reasoning of the earlier case will either not apply or will be
limited.
Whether a case is successfully distinguished
often looks to whether the distinguished facts are material to the
matter.
Both cases Balfour
v. Balfour (1919) and Merrit v.
Merrit (1971), involve a wife making a claim against her
husband for breach
of contract. The judge in Balfour decided that a claim could
not be made because there was no intention to create legal
regulations, there was no legally binding contract. However in
Merrit v. Merrit, the judge decided that the facts of this case was
sufficiently different in that, whilst the parties were husband and
wife, the agreement was made after they had separated, in writing,
thus distinguishing the case from Balfour.
Spotted cow
An analogy taught in law school is that of a case involving black and white spotted cows. A lawyer in a subsequent case involving brown spotted cows might distinguish the facts on the color of the spots.Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
adorn,
aggrandize, analyze, anatomize, atomize, be characteristic,
behold, bestow honor
upon, call attention to, catch sight of, categorize, change, characterize, chop logic,
clap eyes on, classify,
confer distinction on, contradistinguish,
decide, define, demarcate, demark, denote, describe, descry, designate, desynonymize, detach, detect, determinate, determine, diagnose, difference, differentiate, dignify, discern, discover, discriminate, disengage, disequalize, disjoin, diversify, divide, draw the line, earmark, ennoble, erect, espy, extricate, feel, finger, glimpse, glorify, grace, grade, group, have, have in sight, hear, honor, identify, indicate, individualize, individuate, judge, ken, keynote, know, know again, lay eyes on, look
on, look upon, magnify,
make a distinction, make out, mark, mark off, mark out, mark the
interface, modify,
nail, note, notice, observe, part, particularize, peg, perceive, personalize, pick out, pick
up, pinpoint, place, qualify, realize, recall knowledge of,
recognize, refine a
distinction, reidentify, remark, screen, screen out, see, segregate, select, sense, separate, set a limit, set
apart, set off, set the pace, set the tone, sever, severalize, sieve, sieve out, sift, sift out, sight, signalize, single out,
smell, sort, sort out, sound the keynote,
specialize, split
hairs, spot, spy, subdivide, sublime, subtilize, take in, taste, tell, tell apart, twig, uprear, vary, view, winnow, witness