What's the difference between abject and countenance?

Abject


Definition:

  • (a.) Cast down; low-lying.
  • (a.) Sunk to a law condition; down in spirit or hope; degraded; servile; groveling; despicable; as, abject posture, fortune, thoughts.
  • (a.) To cast off or down; hence, to abase; to degrade; to lower; to debase.
  • (n.) A person in the lowest and most despicable condition; a castaway.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He is an expert on the public health problems that plague El Paso and the other cities along the international border, all of which are exacerbated by abject poverty and a burgeoning population.
  • (2) During his long stint in the witness stand, Harris was questioned at length about why he expressed abject remorse to the father for his actions, offering a little more credible explanation than he felt ending the relationship had upset the woman.
  • (3) And while Altmejd presents sexual scenes of cartoonish horror and disgust, Lucas's art has embraced lavatorial humour, abjection, self-denigration, the pithy sculptural one-liner and the obscene gesture.
  • (4) An Israeli commentator said of the first of them: "when one looks through all the lofty phraseology, all the deliberate disinformation, the hundreds of pettifogging sections, sub-sections, appendices and protocols, one clearly recognises that the Israeli victory was absolute and Palestine defeat abject."
  • (5) It is an abject failure to take the rights of females seriously.
  • (6) Obviously Pantilimon is more abject than Hart,” says Graham Lees “and Demichelis must have lied on his CV but why does no one bemoan the wretchedness, sorry, opportunity gifted to Sunderland, of Nasri’s selection?
  • (7) Indeed, we have been reminded recently of the abject poverty that many have fallen into, needing to use food banks or choose between "eating and heating" and the need for charitable institutions to step forward and help the needy.
  • (8) Now, millions of working people who would otherwise be languishing in abject poverty depend on these tax credits.
  • (9) It was an abject defeat for a leader whose response to the migration crisis deserved better.
  • (10) Meanwhile the victims are sitting there in abject poverty and have not received any compensation."
  • (11) The aim was to secure a politically and militarily allied government in a strategically important country, a mission which David Cameron amusingly declared this week to have been "accomplished" despite the western alliance's abject failure over 12 years to defeat that Taliban's rag-tag army and the refusal of the corrupt Hamid Karzai administration to play ball over the country's long-term future .
  • (12) But it bears testament, too, to the Brown government's abject failure to give a comprehensible account of itself that the opposition should find such easy pickings.
  • (13) It's all there: sexual and social confusion, vulnerability and violence, alienation and loneliness, the oscillation between feeling abject and worthless and wanting to take over the world, the fantasies of power and revenge.
  • (14) "Outright hostility, abject surrender - that's what you have seen in the past.
  • (15) The picture you have painted is one of abject squalor made worse by a generally lazy approach to hygiene.
  • (16) Smith could not have been more abjectly humiliated.
  • (17) Given the abject failure of much of the western media to scrutinise its actions – at least until it's too late – it may believe it can get away with it.
  • (18) He ended up with five during the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign but all came in the fixtures against an abject Gibraltar, featuring a hat-trick in the home game scored, memorably, from a combined total of eight yards.
  • (19) Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said: “The abject failure by Southern rail in yesterday’s talks to take the safety issues seriously has left us with no option but to confirm further action.
  • (20) Recent weeks have seen a succession of good news stories from Iraq, including the ceremonial reopening of the national museum, whose looting in 2003 symbolised the abject failure to plan for the post-war period.

Countenance


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To encourage; to favor; to approve; to aid; to abet.
  • (v. t.) To make a show of; to pretend.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This is a big U-turn by the BMA, which had consistently refused to countenance any of Saturday being classified that way.
  • (2) This marks a fresh approach following an attempt on Monday to contain the controversy with a second, more conciliatory, statement by Ivens, the paper's longserving deputy editor who is just one week into his new job, who said: "The last thing I or anyone connected with the Sunday Times would countenance would be insulting the memory of the Shoah or invoking the blood libel.
  • (3) Unless the Chinese plan a “space spectacular”, the future of manned spaceflight lies with privately funded adventurers prepared to participate in a cut-price programme far riskier than Nasa would countenance.
  • (4) In a strongly-worded letter of resignation the award-winning science fiction and fantasy author said the Guild's decision to support Google in its plans to digitise millions of books meant she could no longer countenance being a member.
  • (5) But Goodwin himself has said he's willing to countenance publication of the FSA's probe, as have several of his senior colleagues.
  • (6) She has repeatedly refused to countenance the proposal and there is scant chance of her shifting that position as she moves into an election year.
  • (7) Miliband quoted from a 2010 Daily Telegraph interview in which the prime minister was reported as saying he would “not countenance leaving the EU and … would never campaign for an out vote in an EU referendum.” Miliband insisted Cameron’s “renegotiation is going nowhere; he’s caught between his backbenchers …and the national interest.
  • (8) He said they had already postponed the move until after the US election, but would not countenance further delays.
  • (9) The 25-year-old has entered the final year of his contract at Loftus Road but QPR , conscious of his prolific record, will not countenance his sale this summer for less than £15m as they seek an immediate return to the Premier League.
  • (10) Those on the security council opposed to us say they want Saddam to disarm but will not countenance any new resolution that authorises force in the event of non-compliance.
  • (11) "Sir Fred's role in the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland , and his refusal to countenance any reduction in his grotesquely extravagant £700,000-a-year pension, convinces me it would be wholly inappropriate for him to retain the high honour of a knighthood."
  • (12) "I wonder, will such people be held accountable at the end of the day for the absolute refusal to countenance a precautionary approach?
  • (13) But he added: “Islam today includes a substantial minority of believers who countenance, if they don’t actually carry out, a degree of violence in the application of their convictions that is currently unique.” Ajaz Ashraf, writing at the Indian website First Post, blamed totalitarian regimes in the Muslim world for fostering such violence .
  • (14) David Moyes was “not impressed” by newspaper pictures of Van Aanholt apparently smoking such a hookah at a central Newcastle shisha lounge this summer and has made it clear that he will not countenance any repeats.
  • (15) On the eve of the summit, China indicated it was willing to countenance an initiative by President Barack Obama to smooth the flow of capital around the world in the hope of securing greater long-term economic stability.
  • (16) But Abbott has refused to countenance such changes, saying that “we have made a very clear decision that we aren’t ever going to increase the taxes on super, we aren’t ever going to increase the restrictions on super because super belongs to the people”.
  • (17) And I've had enough tedious arguments with libertarians to know that the one thing they won't countenance is one person infringing another's "property rights", of which the one they hold in the highest regard is the person themself.
  • (18) The panel specifically cautioned that adoption of such principles is not designed to countenance delays in treatment, but if necessary, should help form more rational queues for coronary revascularization.
  • (19) While talking the talk of harm reduction, she has never shown a willingness to countenance a decriminalisation agenda , even in a modest form.
  • (20) However, Levy made it clear that he would not countenance a deal with their bitter rivals, much to the annoyance of the West Ham co-owner David Gold.