What's the difference between avarice and mercenary?

Avarice


Definition:

  • (n.) An excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greediness after wealth; covetousness; cupidity.
  • (n.) An inordinate desire for some supposed good.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The tragedy of Latin American health planning has been that the wisdom of their approach, which seeks to concern health consumers first rather than cater to the avarice of health producers as is done in the U.S., has not been matchable by the level of technological and political sophistication needed to bring it off.
  • (2) Under the cover of this administration’s constant cloud of chaos – some deliberately generated by Trump, much of it foisted upon him by his incompetence and avarice – this shared agenda is being pursued with methodical and unblinking focus.
  • (3) We didn’t want to do the manufacturing ourselves: we wanted a business to take on the idea, make the bikes, and bring us riches beyond the dreams of avarice.
  • (4) Combination of sclerotherapy with portal antihypertensive medication might become the treatment of choice until eradication of varices has been achieved; thereafter either continued medication or repeated endoscopy will maintain an avariceal state and effective prevention of recurrent variceal bleeding.
  • (5) He was the perfect 80s movie star, an emblem of American avarice, beloved of all the housewives.
  • (6) He display- ed no signs of personal avarice; he cut his presidential salary when he came to power, and lopped off a further third of it as a regular donation to a children's fund.
  • (7) Three hours of sexual and pharmacological excess, wanton debauchery, unfathomable avarice, gleeful misogyny, extreme narcotic brinksmanship, malfeasance and lawless behaviour is a lot to take, and some have complained of the film's relentlessness, which, if understood in formal terms, I think may be one of its main aims.
  • (8) You’re more likely to die at weekends because of junior doctors’ avarice and indolence.
  • (9) "We can see the results: the government cronies get rich – some beyond their wildest dreams of avarice – while the people stay poor."
  • (10) We could ascribe all of these investments to some kind of misplaced avarice.
  • (11) I am a Bollinger Bolshevik, apparently, because I believe I should have a final say in what my tickets cost, in order to manage audience expectation of the work itself, to control perceptions of my own apparent avarice and to make sure that money that is spent on me by punters reflects the cost savings I and the venue have cut corners to make, and the public subsidies the venue may have received, all of which are designed to make entry to the show viable, so that all sorts of people can come along and think I am shit together.
  • (12) We can see the results: the government cronies get rich – some beyond their wildest dreams of avarice – while the people stay poor."
  • (13) Quite the opposite is true.” FSG has been stung by accusations of avarice and protests that threaten Klopp’s ideal of unity between fans and the club.
  • (14) The flower of English football is being eaten by canker worms of money and avarice.
  • (15) On transparency, he slams countries - such as in Africa - who: rip off hard working people and plunder natural resources... Government officials get rich, some beyond their wildest dreams of avarice.
  • (16) Yesterday it was the Barclays board, avatars of avarice overseeing rewards beyond any conceivable fair share – a 10% rise in bonuses despite a 32% fall in profits.
  • (17) Even the star of the Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence, chose to publicly tut at her own employer’s avarice (“I think it’s too soon.
  • (18) Now his emotions spewed, they shot out: fear, anxiety, worry, power, thirst, hunger, lust, avarice, hubris … He's feeling everything and he's alive.
  • (19) A s a parable of avarice, it is surely much older than the internet that has recently given it a new lease of life.
  • (20) When all the outlandish trappings of an extraordinary event have begun to fade and gather dust in the memory, when we have grown vague about the wheeling and dealing involved, about how ethnic pride and financial avarice became ardent bedmates, when we scarcely smile at the remembered sight of Bundini Brown planting a kiss and a “Float like a butterfly” biro on President Mobutu or the more appealing but equally unlikely spectacle of an attractive young black woman breast-feeding her baby in the third row ringside, where accommodation cost $250 a place without mention of meals – when that distant day comes, what will remain utterly undiminished is the excitement of Muhammad Ali’s performance.

Mercenary


Definition:

  • (a.) Acting for reward; serving for pay; paid; hired; hireling; venal; as, mercenary soldiers.
  • (a.) Hence: Moved by considerations of pay or profit; greedy of gain; sordid; selfish.
  • (n.) One who is hired; a hireling; especially, a soldier hired into foreign service.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Donald Trump’s campaign chairman took a “mercenary” approach to lobbying the US government on behalf of international clients accused of killings, rapes and other atrocities, according to one of his former colleagues.
  • (2) Other South African reports have suggested the mercenaries were paid $15,000 each.
  • (3) Deplores the continuing flows of mercenaries into the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and calls upon all Member States to comply strictly with their obligations under paragraph 9 of resolution 1970 (2011) to prevent the provision of armed mercenary personnel to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; Ban on flights 17.
  • (4) Two of his top aides, Conor Cruise O'Brien and George Ivan Smith, both became convinced that the secretary general had been shot down by mercenaries working for European industrialists in Katanga.
  • (5) The CAR's ousted president, Francois Bozize, a Christian, fled the capital in March as the Seleka, including mercenaries from Chad and Sudan, overran the city.
  • (6) And he kept his mercenaries and tortured people inside these walls," said Tarek Saleh, a 25-year-old revolutionary.
  • (7) Unclothed female bodies offer a route up the ladder, just as armed male bodies do for the mercenary "sellswords", who seek their fortune by fighting.
  • (8) Allies can now expect to pay for their security umbrella, as the US military effectively turns into a mercenary force.
  • (9) There have been further protests in Iran in support of the mainly Shia Bahraini opposition, and Tehran recently warned Pakistan against sending any more "mercenaries" to join the crackdown.
  • (10) Yet some have dismissed the vote as irrelevant to Gaddafi and his remaining commanders, or argued that the resolution itself prevents any investigation into non-Libyan "mercenaries" who some allege have been involved in the killings.
  • (11) They say 10 generals who led the rebellion came from Chad, although they describe them as mercenaries rather than Chadian army officers.
  • (12) Ocampo suggested Saif could be travelling with the protection of mercenaries who are preparing to fly him to an unidentified African state that does not co-operate with the ICC and would be unlikely to extradite him.
  • (13) Bahrainis often complain that the riot police and special forces do not speak the local dialect, or in the case of Baluchis from Pakistan, do not speak Arabic at all and are reviled as mercenaries.
  • (14) In a statement on Friday, Russia's defence ministry said the Ukrainian military operation was launching rocket strikes on protesters, accusing it of employing ultra-nationalists from the group Right Sector and “English-speaking foreigners” it suggested were American mercenaries.
  • (15) Oh, and football clubs – two of them contesting the Champions League final in London next week – built on youth policy, supporter ownership and long-term strategy, not mercenary millionaires, foreign oligarchs and instant gratification.
  • (16) Later the kidnappers were described as "Chechen mercenaries" fighting with Jabhat al-Nusra, an extreme Islamist group that has links with al-Qaida.
  • (17) Fox, speaking on the steps of the Pentagon after meeting Gates, said: "We have seen significant progress made in the last 72 hours with Gaddafi's forces losing their grip on Misrata and we have received reports of under-age soldiers and foreign mercenaries being captured – this underlines the regimes inability to rely on its own security forces.
  • (18) The secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjöld , focused on finding a political solution for the first few months, but by September, he and his aides were convinced that western interests and mercenaries in Katanga were preventing a settlement, and authorised a UN military offensive there, codenamed Operation Morthor.
  • (19) It is thought the people in the portraits were the direct descendents of the original settlers in the Fayum, who were Greek mercenary soldiers who fought for the Ptolomies.
  • (20) Janjaweed forces that committed genocide in Darfur were frequently linked to Gaddafi: many had once been Islamic Legion members, the rag-tag mercenary army he had created to fulfil his vision of a pan-Arabic band across north Africa.