Professional Documents
Culture Documents
“covered by”
60805 I want to find out the differences in meaning among covered by, covered
in, and covered with. For example, what is the difference between:
up vote15down
vote favorite covered with blood
5 covered in blood
shareimprove
| edited Jan 12 '13 at 12:46 asked Mar 11 '12 at 20:24
this question
RegDwigнt♦ fairouz
73.3k26247338 76113
add a comment |
2 Answers
60818 The meanings are very similar, and these three prepositions can be used
almost interchangeably, particularly in the context of your "The mountain is
up covered with/in/by snow" example. But some subtle nuances may apply.
vote17down
vote When referring to a substance that sticks to another, use in or with,
but not by:
The city council meeting was covered by the news station, but not
The city council meeting was covered with the news station, or
The city council meeting was covered in the news station.
Other guidelines are likely to apply as well. This is not a question with an
easy and straightforward answer.
J.R.
49.3k460151
add a comment |
60816 All three are in use, and the differences are subtle; but they do exist.
up "Covered by" generally means that the covering actually hides the thing that
vote7down is covered: it would usually be an object (a sheet, a lid, a curtain) rather than
vote a substance, that is doing the covering. "Covered by blood" is unlikely, and
"covered by snow" would imply that the snow is so deep that you can't see
what it is covering. "Covered by blankets" is a more likely example.
"Covered with" is somewhere in the middle, and can mean the same as
either of the other two.