What's the difference between banter and bullying?

Banter


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To address playful good-natured ridicule to, -- the person addressed, or something pertaining to him, being the subject of the jesting; to rally; as, he bantered me about my credulity.
  • (v. t.) To jest about; to ridicule in speaking of, as some trait, habit, characteristic, and the like.
  • (v. t.) To delude or trick, -- esp. by way of jest.
  • (v. t.) To challenge or defy to a match.
  • (n.) The act of bantering; joking or jesting; humorous or good-humored raillery; pleasantry.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It shows that we still have some way to go to end bigoted banter.” The exchange was also met with disdain on Twitter.
  • (2) The LMA exacerbated the issue on Thursday night with a statement of its own, in which Mackay apologised for sending texts that “were disrespectful to other cultures” but he “was letting off steam to a friend during some friendly text message banter”.
  • (3) The man who cannot hold his own in repartee will even learn other men's jokes off by heart, so that he can fill a void in the general banter.
  • (4) It added: "These were two text messages sent in private at a time Malky felt under great pressure and when he was letting off steam to a friend during some friendly text message banter."
  • (5) From time to time I'd bump into Amy she had good banter so we could chat a bit and have a laugh, she was a character but that world was riddled with half-cut, doped-up chancers, I was one of them, even in early recovery I was kept afloat only by clinging to the bodies of strangers so Winehouse, but for her gentle quirks didn't especially register.
  • (6) While the opening tranche of "tales" derive from the work of forgotten contemporary humorists, the pieces of London reportage that he began to contribute to the Morning Chronicle in autumn 1834 ("Gin Shops", "Shabby-Genteel People", "The Pawnbroker's Shop") are like nothing else in pre-Victorian journalism: bantering and hard-headed by turns, hectic and profuse, falling over themselves to convey every last detail of the metropolitan front-line from which Dickens sent back his dispatches.
  • (7) Lunchtime read: How banter conquered Britain Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Guardian Design Team There are hundreds of banter groups on Facebook, you can eat at restaurants called Scoff & Banter or buy an “Archbishop of Banterbury” T-shirt for £9.99.
  • (8) Jack soon suspected that the cynical comments emanating from behind him belonged to a Manchester City supporter but, typically, enjoyed the banter.
  • (9) It featured – and then featured the end of – a new character, Uncle Steve, and banter between Rick (Roiland) and his detested son-in-law Jerry (Chris Parnell).
  • (10) If the news that Wendi Deng had joined her husband Rupert Murdoch on Twitter and promptly engaged in flirtatious banter with the likes of Ricky Gervais seemed too good to be true, that's because it was.
  • (11) Gordon Brown spoke fluently and even managed some banter with cabinet colleagues.
  • (12) Naseer insisted the emails consisted only of harmless banter about looking for a potential bride after going to England to take computer science classes.
  • (13) But instead of condemning such behaviour as sexist, the Bar Council chairman described it as “banter”.
  • (14) "Banter", for me, is like a spitty wind, one that either breezes past gently, or batters me round the cheeks with its mindless force.
  • (15) I tried to address it and have a bit of bunny-based banter with him: "Why are you wearing a full rabbit costume?"
  • (16) These recordings will include an approximation of the original Smile album, plus outtakes and studio banter.
  • (17) "I've met all my colleagues this week so I've received a little bit of banter from them which has been good natured.
  • (18) We survived for six hours with only scraps of quality banter, three cans of Rockstar and a lukewarm quarter chicken that my mate Karl smuggled in his Superdry man bag.
  • (19) He added that the banter on Top Gear was an "imperfect science" that would "invariably upset some viewers at some point".
  • (20) Is banter the act of whispering "IDon'tFancyYouIDon'tFancyYou" with your eyes?

Bullying


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Bully

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Unfortunately, due to confidentiality clauses that have been imposed on us by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, we are unable to provide our full names and … titles … However, we believe the evidence that will be submitted will validate the statements that we are making in this submission.” The submission detailed specific allegations – including names and dates – of sexual abuse of child detainees, violence and bullying of children, suicide attempts by children and medical neglect.
  • (2) In platform shoes to emulate Johnson's height, and with the aid of prosthetic earlobes, Cranston becomes the 36th president: he bullies and cajoles, flatters and snarls and barks, tells dirty jokes or glows with idealism as required, and delivers the famous "Johnson treatment" to everyone from Martin Luther King to the racist Alabama governor George Wallace.
  • (3) It would still need to work with government funded national anti-doping organisations where they exist (though even those considered an example to others, such as UK Anti Doping, are facing swingeing cuts) and bully as well as cajole sports into testing properly with rigour and independence.
  • (4) "For so long, management kept us down; they've broken us and bullied us," he said.
  • (5) One hundred days from Rio, Britain’s national cycling team has been thrown into chaos following the sudden resignation of its head, technical director Shane Sutton , as allegations of bullying and discrimination against women and Paralympians accumulated on Wednesday.
  • (6) Once I’d checked she was OK I said, ‘Stop crying now.’ ” So it’s about managing emotions: ‘I’m going to need you to get a grip.’” “If you’ve got interesting points to make about the devaluing of serious words like bullying and depression, why make them in a way that sounds like you’re ridiculing people who are suffering?” I ask.
  • (7) How, we might ask, can homophobic bullying be tackled when implicitly sanctioned by the school’s own literature?
  • (8) But 30 minutes before takeoff on our private jet – like a top-end Lexus limo with wings – actress Rosamund Pike has heroically stepped in for the year's hot meal ticket: an El Bulli supper, pitch perfect for a selection of rare champagne, devised by Adrià with Richard Geoffroy, Dom Pérignon's effervescent chef de cave.
  • (9) This is the latest rejection for an irrational bully whose brand is increasingly toxic.” Referring to earlier controversial comments made on the US campaign trail, Salmond also said of Trump: His behaviour and comments are unlikely to attract the votes of many Mexican Americans or Muslim Americans.
  • (10) "If I thought he was a bully or if I thought he was homophobic then I would take him off," Cooper told MediaGuardian's Radio Reborn conference in central London.
  • (11) Dean, who started working at the flagship A&F store on 11 June last year, told the tribunal: "I had been bullied out of my job.
  • (12) Extensive research among the Afghan National Army – 68 focus groups – and US military personnel alike concluded: "One group sees the other as a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving profane, infidel bullies hiding behind high technology; and the other group [the US soldiers] generally views the former as a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous, and murderous radicals.
  • (13) More like this: • Five reasons why the Ref is not fit for purpose‬‬‬ • Struggle for top research grades fuels bullying among university staf f • Measuring impact: how Australia and the UK are tackling research assessment Enter the Guardian university awards 2015 and join the higher education network for more comment, analysis and job opportunities, direct to your inbox.
  • (14) In 2007 a fresh-faced MP spent two days at the home of a Muslim family in Birmingham and then wrote boldly of how it wasn’t possible to “bully people into feeling British: we have to inspire them”; “you can’t even start to talk about a truly integrated society while people are suffering racist … abuse … on a daily basis”.
  • (15) "We should oppose the practices of the big bullying the small, the strong domineering over the weak and the rich oppressing the poor."
  • (16) Someone, somewhere, must stand up to the bullying, hectoring hypocrisy of Cameron's "localism" act and his henchman, Pickles, in full "screw democracy" mode.
  • (17) The report detailed several instances of bullying by pupils.
  • (18) The assessment of bullying in schools comes after police figures indicated that young people were the victims of 10% of faith hate crime and 8% of race hate crime between 16 June and 7 July.
  • (19) Earlier Alexander, the most senior Scottish MP in the UK cabinet, rejected claims that ministers in London were bullying Scotland into rejecting independence.
  • (20) Work on The Maze Runner came about, he says, because his director watched Son of Rambow “and knew I had some bully-ish qualities in my acting locker”.