What's the difference between avow and vow?

Avow


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To declare openly, as something believed to be right; to own or acknowledge frankly; as, a man avows his principles or his crimes.
  • (v. t.) To acknowledge and justify, as an act done. See Avowry.
  • (n.) Avowal.
  • (n.) To bind, or to devote, by a vow.
  • (n.) A vow or determination.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) How can she be so self-avowedly hip (Revolver, reefer) and yet so naive (swinging)?
  • (2) Discontent with the monarchy is no longer confined to avowedly republican parties or rightwingers, who have never forgiven the king for introducing democracy and transforming the state handed to him by dictator General Francisco Franco on his death in 1975, when Spain's historically fragile monarchy was restored for the second time in a century.
  • (3) The avowedly antisemitic National Socialists of the NRM are the extreme wing of this spectrum, Poohl says.
  • (4) For an avowed elitist, he had a remarkable ability to talk to a crowd.
  • (5) That, and the strong possibility that Obama was not referring to just those 1.5 million, but to some larger percentage of the 51% of Americans who disapprove of the job he's doing – a group that, statistically speaking, can't just consist of avowed racists.
  • (6) Snyder mentions Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán , who avowedly seeks the creation of an “illiberal” state, and who, says Snyder, “looks fondly on that period as one of healthy national consciousness”.
  • (7) But the rise of Ukip looks to me to be legitimising a very different view, in which the average English person will be characterised as an avowed Eurosceptic, a fierce opponent of immigration, a hang-'em-and-flog-'em merchant, and a hater of government.
  • (8) In September the telegenic Tsipras, an avowed atheist, made a trip to Rome to hold talks with Pope Francis.
  • (9) They are avowedly non-violent in their approach, but do not shy away from supporting specific “mujahedeen” groups in current conflicts, though this support has rarely been found to go beyond the rhetorical and is confined to wars within the Muslim world.
  • (10) In November 1962, six years after she left the Communist party, an MI5 officer wrote, in a file stamped “secret and personal”: “She is known to have retained extreme leftwing views and she takes an interest in African affairs as an avowed opponent of racial discrimination.
  • (11) In another video Shekau made an avowal that "we will continue to carry out such school attacks till our last breath".
  • (12) For his father, an avowed “leftist liberal”, Romanos is typical of a younger generation who, although middle-class and privileged, have been radicalised by growing up in a nation whose political establishment is blamed for the devastation wrought by its brush with bankruptcy.
  • (13) What DfE ministers and civil servants will make of this ideological clash is anyone’s guess but, since the avowed aim of the free school programme is to let a thousand flowers bloom, it would be surprising if Livingstone’s Hammersmith proposal failed.
  • (14) But they also mentioned the possibility of him cracking down on immigration, despite the mayor of London being avowedly pro-immigration .
  • (15) The Russian targets so far include a small number of avowedly secular fighters who have received limited backing from the United States and the Gulf states.
  • (16) I have remained a party member and avowedly a Trotskyist.
  • (17) Like Mandela, he was a black revolutionary, a prisoner turned president who avowed racial reconciliation and became a darling of the west.
  • (18) Factor analyses of the children's responses yielded three interpretable factors: a tendency to despise the victims of bullies; general admiration for school bullies; and avowed support for intervention to assist the victim.
  • (19) Sexual function after prostatectomy, particularly perirenal, has been reviewed in 128 patients treated in private practice for the past twenty years by one urologist with an avowed bias to encouraging postoperative sexual function.
  • (20) That may not be all that surprising given the march of Europhobia through the Tory party, but it is nevertheless striking that so many Conservatives preferred an avowed enemy of their party who describes the prime minister as a conman over their current coalition partner.

Vow


Definition:

  • (n.) A solemn promise made to God, or to some deity; an act by which one consecrates or devotes himself, absolutely or conditionally, wholly or in part, for a longer or shorter time, to some act, service, or condition; a devotion of one's possessions; as, a baptismal vow; a vow of poverty.
  • (n.) Specifically, a promise of fidelity; a pledge of love or affection; as, the marriage vow.
  • (n.) To give, consecrate, or dedicate to God, or to some deity, by a solemn promise; to devote; to promise solemnly.
  • (n.) To assert solemnly; to asseverate.
  • (v. i.) To make a vow, or solemn promise.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The strike, which Central Command said destroyed the Isis fighting position, follows Barack Obama's vow in his televised speech on Wednesday to go on the offensive against Isis more broadly in Iraq and, soon, Syria.
  • (2) But Mr Bolloré, with a 29% stake in Aegis, vowed to keep calling shareholder meetings until he gets his way.
  • (3) But Clegg also says he is not going to be cowed into taking Cameron's vow of silence about Farage's assertion that he finds Britain unrecognisable and is uncomfortable at the lack of English spoken on commuter trains out of Charing Cross.
  • (4) Cameron also believes the planned peace talks can lure Assad's acolytes to break with their leader by vowing that if he goes, the existing military and security services will be preserved, saying the aim was "to learn the lessons of Iraq".
  • (5) "We have vowed to never forget and we never will," he said.
  • (6) The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu , has vowed the militant Islamist group Hamas, blamed by Israel for the kidnapping, will "pay a heavy price".
  • (7) China to allow pension fund to invest in stock market for first time Read more China’s state-run media has repeatedly vowed that the country’s leaders will not allow such huge losses to continue.
  • (8) The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents postal workers, has vowed to fight the sale, which it says will lead to a "worse deal for customers, staff and thousands of small businesses dependent on the Royal Mail".
  • (9) Von Trier, who took a " vow of silence " after being banned from the Cannes film festival in 2011 after joking about Nazism during a press conference for Melancholia, arrived at Nymphomaniac's photocall wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "Persona Non Grata"; true to his word, he failed to attend the subsequent press conference where his actors and producer talked about the film.
  • (10) Iran has vowed to retaliate against the ISA extension, passed unanimously on Thursday, saying it violated last year’s agreement with six major powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for lifting of international financial sanctions.
  • (11) Far from being depressed, the audience turned into a heaving mass of furious geeks, who roared their anger and vowed that they would not rest until they had brought down the rotten system The "skeptic movement" (always spelt with "k" by the way, to emphasise their distinctiveness) had come to Singh's aid.
  • (12) Most remarkably: last July, 60 Minutes reported that Al Sharpton "has decided not to criticize the president about anything " – a vow that should be the ultimate disqualifying attribute for working in journalism: how can someone be employed as a political commentator if they vow never to criticize the president under any circumstances?
  • (13) Griffin vowed to lodge a complaint at the "unfair" way the Question Time programme was produced, despite the BNP's claims that his appearance sparked the "biggest single recruitment night in the party's history".
  • (14) More than 120 couples joined the mass on Sunday morning to renew their wedding vows and celebrate more than 1,700 years of marriage between them.
  • (15) Brandis has asked the ACT government not to put the new laws into effect until the court can determine their validity, but the chief minister, Katy Gallagher, has vowed to press ahead.
  • (16) Instead, he vowed: "That means I will be cautious about the promises I make.
  • (17) Before the August rebellion Uganda and Rwanda both had some troops on the eastern Congo border, by agreement with Mr Kabila and theoretically in joint operations with his forces against the tens of thousands of former Rwandan soldiers and interahamwe who have vowed to continue the genocide in Rwanda.
  • (18) Qatar had vowed to reform the industry after the Guardian exposed the desperate plight of many of its migrant workers last year.
  • (19) In his only specific growth measure, he said Britain's planning laws would have to be scrapped so more housing could be built, vowing to scrap "the suffocating bureaucracy" that he said was holding economic growth back.
  • (20) We look forward to many more years of working with Maria.” Sharapova, who has been provisionally banned while the International tennis Federation decides her fate, has thanked her fans for their support and vowed to return to the game.