Tangent alert!
I heard the same thing described as “blown down and burned up” by one speaker and “blown up and burned down” by another. Perhaps up and down DO mean the same thing in certain circumstances…
Tangent alert!
I heard the same thing described as “blown down and burned up” by one speaker and “blown up and burned down” by another. Perhaps up and down DO mean the same thing in certain circumstances…
sanction (= to approve)/sanction (= to prohibit or limit or censure, or something)
oops. I see I have completely misunderstood the OP. Sorry.
disgruntled and gruntled?
And as Cleops’s take on this:
oversight - a mistake
oversight (as in oversight committee) - to examine to make sure mistakes aren’t made.
What about when a word is its own antonym?
Seed: to remove seeds, as from fruit
Seed: to apply seeds, as to a lawn
Slow up and slow down.
The OP didn’t ask for words which sound the same, but with different meanings. Though this phenomemon is interesting too. Richard Lederer in his book Crazy English refers to them as Janus-faced words, after the two-faced Roman god Janus, since they could look both ways.
Used as verbs, best and worst.
I bested him in the fight and I worsted him in the fight both have exactly the same meaning.
To sanction, meaning to permit or to approve, but sanction as in U.N. sanctions against Iraq.
Not exact opposites, of course, but certainly very different in attitude.
Their own opposites:
“Fast” - to be quick or to not move at all.
If you “advance” the date for a future event, it may mean to postpone it or to plan on it happening sooner.