What's the difference between balderdash and vague?

Balderdash


Definition:

  • (n.) A worthless mixture, especially of liquors.
  • (n.) Senseless jargon; ribaldry; nonsense; trash.
  • (v. t.) To mix or adulterate, as liquors.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) And lest there be any remaining doubt, a forensic expert on maggots – such people do exist – testified that the theory of "semen-destroying maggots" was balderdash.
  • (2) Other balderdash included Nick Clegg's phoney claim : "As a proportion of this country's wealth, this government will be spending more in public spending at the end of this parliament after all these cuts, than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were when they came into power."
  • (3) The balderdash quotient is high at all party conferences, but at a time like this people will wince more than ever at high-minded phrases from government ministers that disguise a very different reality.
  • (4) That kind of balderdash brings politics into disrepute.

Vague


Definition:

  • (v. i.) Wandering; vagrant; vagabond.
  • (v. i.) Unsettled; unfixed; undetermined; indefinite; ambiguous; as, a vague idea; a vague proposition.
  • (v. i.) Proceeding from no known authority; unauthenticated; uncertain; flying; as, a vague report.
  • (n.) An indefinite expanse.
  • (v. i.) To wander; to roam; to stray.
  • (n.) A wandering; a vagary.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In view of its infrequent and vague presentation, care is required to avoid overlooking the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis, particularly in the immigrant population.
  • (2) Congenital defect of a cervical pedicle produces a rare clinical syndrome with a characteristic X-ray picture associated with vague clinical signs often accentuated after trauma.
  • (3) Such an explanation not only remains vague and speculative but deserves criticism also for being incomplete.
  • (4) What are New York values?” he asked the crowd, alluding to Cruz’s vague denigration of those “liberal” values in a January debate.
  • (5) Chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is an autoimmune disorder in which the abnormality in cellular immunity has remained only vaguely defined.
  • (6) The family physician who sees many children with vague abdominal pain must include peptic ulcer disease in the differential diagnosis.
  • (7) The remaining patients had vague pains, tender abdomen, constitutional symptoms or a mass in the abdomen.
  • (8) The system was "flawed" and the rules were "vague".
  • (9) The Japanese preferred alternative was to give a vague alternative diagnosis such as neurasthenia.
  • (10) Veering between a patronising video , a vague report and impenetrable financial data does not amount to openness and accountability.
  • (11) "In addition, the Department for Communities and Local Government [DCLG] has failed to provide the council with any cost estimates for the audit apart from the vague statement that costs are likely to be 'within £1m'.
  • (12) The diagnosis of leptospirosis is often difficult to make because of vague and mild symptoms.
  • (13) Since the day of action was announced, there has been a new mood in the group; some people talk somewhat vaguely about Tunisia and Egypt; mass protest is in the air.
  • (14) A case is reported where pneumoperitoneum developed after the surgical procedure with vague abdominal symptoms accompanied by fever and leukocytosis.
  • (15) This feature of ILC may also help explain why tumors may be palpable as areas of vague induration or thickening rather than as discrete masses.
  • (16) A 57-year-old man was admitted with the complaints of vague headache and left upper limb numbness.
  • (17) Polling suggests that people prefer the Conservatives on immigration because they expect them to be "tougher" in some vague, generic sense, rather than because they believe in their policies.
  • (18) As biological discharge phenomena evolve into vague psychological awareness, such an infant does not attain a sense of well-being, but rather attains a sense of "not-well-being" (Joffe and Sandler, 1965) which remains continuous or can be triggered--kindled--by any reactivating constellation, and the object is experienced as a source of unpleasure.
  • (19) The only time I see him in even vague bad humour is when a wardrobe assistant tries to neaten a dancer's hair.
  • (20) The concept of fuzzy sets was chosen for its ability to represent classes of objects that are vaguely described from the measured data.