What's the difference between behest and promise?

Behest


Definition:

  • (n.) That which is willed or ordered; a command; a mandate; an injunction.
  • (n.) A vow; a promise.
  • (v. t.) To vow.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Birmingham's city council leader, Bore, on Wednesday confirmed the names of 18 schools inspected by Ofsted in recent weeks at Gove's behest.
  • (2) Opponents warn that Japan could be dragged into damaging conflicts overseas at the behest of its main ally, the US.
  • (3) Eighteen-year-old Zhu Guilin said he usually preferred pop music, but relished competing with his class in the red song competitions that swept Chongqing at Bo's behest.
  • (4) The slippage began with the disastrous abandonment last year of the soil framework directive, at the behest of agricultural lobbyists and the British government.
  • (5) Belhaj, former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, was detained with his wife in China in 2004 at the behest of British and US officials.
  • (6) At the moment it appears to be dominated by conservative Arab kingdoms so Iran, Iraq and Syria will not welcome it.” He cautioned against Pakistan being dragged into conflicts at the behest of others.
  • (7) After five years of harsh spending cuts and tax rises imposed at the behest of the troika, the Greek government has battled its way back to a so-called primary surplus.
  • (8) Based on recent public statements by European policy makers and bank executives, we believe the options FBF has put forward on the refinancing of Greece's maturing debt were made at the behest of Greece's eurozone official creditors.
  • (9) Five years ago, when the last major World Service cuts were pushed through, it was at the behest of a Labour government which wanted to build a presence in the Middle East.
  • (10) "We want alliances, not absorptions", he said, indicating that the government was looking at whether to inject state capital into the business at the behest of the unions.
  • (11) After Litvinenko, more sanctions against Russia would be pointless – and hypocritical | Simon Jenkins Read more Last week, a British public inquiry concluded that ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was likely to have been murdered at the personal behest of Putin .
  • (12) The latest fine stems in large part from allegations of mis-selling of “toxic” mortgage securities by Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, two firms JP Morgan purchased during the 2008 financial crisis at the behest of the government.
  • (13) At the micro level, there is no evidence of active consumer support for licensure and it seems to have been introduced mainly at the behest of members of the occupation and bureaucrats involved in the regulation of laboratories.
  • (14) A further EGM has been called at O'Brien's behest for 13 November, when shareholders will vote on the board's authority to issue more shares ahead of a rights issue later this year.
  • (15) Media ownership rules are currently the subject of a review by the Office of Fair Trading , launched at the behest of the communications minister, Lord Carter, following the publication of his interim Digital Britain report earlier this year.
  • (16) Ted Nugent, the rock musician who received a visit from the secret service after he said he would either be "dead or in jail" if President Barack Obama was re-elected, will be in the audience at the state of the union address on Tuesday evening, at the behest of Texas conservative Steve Stockman.
  • (17) It does a lot of TV advertising, and its ads are often reprimanded as being in poor taste: a 2009 campaign featuring a Spitting Image -style puppet of Julius Malema, president of the ANC youth league, was removed at the behest of Malema's lawyers.
  • (18) A statement released on the website of Peru's foreign ministry , which holds the rotating presidency of the intergovernmental union, said: The foreign ministry of Peru lets public opinion know that, in concordance with the statutory responsibilities of the temporary presidency of Unasur, at the behest of the Republic of Ecuador and after consulting member states, an extraordinary meeting of the Counsel of Foreign Ministers of the Union has been convened on Sunday August 19 in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador.
  • (19) He became a human rights activist of sorts, championing the rights of the "disappeared" – Islamist suspects who had been illegally abducted, detained and sometimes tortured by Pakistani intelligence, often at the behest of the CIA and, less frequently, MI6.
  • (20) The standoff began when the 164ft RV Ramon Margalef carried out what its captain described as "oceanographic works in the interest of the European community" at the behest of the Spanish government.

Promise


Definition:

  • (a.) In general, a declaration, written or verbal, made by one person to another, which binds the person who makes it to do, or to forbear to do, a specified act; a declaration which gives to the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act.
  • (a.) An engagement by one person to another, either in words or in writing, but properly not under seal, for the performance or nonperformance of some particular thing. The word promise is used to denote the mere engagement of a person, without regard to the consideration for it, or the corresponding duty of the party to whom it is made.
  • (a.) That which causes hope, expectation, or assurance; especially, that which affords expectation of future distinction; as, a youth of great promise.
  • (a.) Bestowal, fulfillment, or grant of what is promised.
  • (v. t.) To engage to do, give, make, or to refrain from doing, giving, or making, or the like; to covenant; to engage; as, to promise a visit; to promise a cessation of hostilities; to promise the payment of money.
  • (v. t.) To afford reason to expect; to cause hope or assurance of; as, the clouds promise rain.
  • (v. t.) To make declaration of or give assurance of, as some benefit to be conferred; to pledge or engage to bestow; as, the proprietors promised large tracts of land; the city promised a reward.
  • (v. i.) To give assurance by a promise, or binding declaration.
  • (v. i.) To afford hopes or expectation; to give ground to expect good; rarely, to give reason to expect evil.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Yet the Tory promise of fiscal rectitude prevailed in England Alexander had been in charge of Labour’s election strategy, but he could not strategise a victory over a 20-year-old Scottish nationalist who has not yet taken her finals.
  • (2) The HTCA is promising as a potential tool for studying the biology of tumors.
  • (3) David Cameron last night hit out at his fellow world leaders after the G8 dropped the promise to meet the historic aid commitments made at Gleneagles in 2005 from this year's summit communique.
  • (4) The success in these two infertile patients who had already undergone lengthy psychotherapy is promising.
  • (5) Measuring this value therefore is a very promising procedure.
  • (6) The Coalition promises to add more misery to their lives.
  • (7) Meanwhile Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, waiting anxiously for news of the scale of the Labour advance in his first nationwide electoral test, will urge the electorate not to be duped by the promise of a coalition mark 2, predicting sham concessions by the Conservatives .
  • (8) John Lewis’s marketing, advertising and reputation are all built on their promises of good customer services, and it is a large part of what still drives people to their stores despite cheaper online outlets.
  • (9) On the basis of reports in the literature and of our own clinical experience it appears that melanocyte inhibiting factor (MIF) is a very promising therapeutic agent in the management of Parkinson's disease.
  • (10) Since the employment of microwave energy for defrosting biological tissues and for microwave-aided diagnosis in cryosurgery is very promising, the problem of ensuring the match between the contact antennas (applicators) and the frozen biological object has become a pressing one.
  • (11) The 20-25 year-old cohort was found to yield the most promising results; however, a statistical difference was not found to exist using the volume or area.
  • (12) The arrest of the Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent Jason Rezaian and his journalist wife, Yeganeh Salehi, as well as a photographer and her partner, is a brutal reminder of the distance between President Hassan Rouhani’s reforming promises and his willingness to act.
  • (13) The use of a new ultraviolet laser combined with a holographic grating spectrograph promises to increase the number of fluorescing species that can be detected simultaneously.
  • (14) So is the mock courtroom promising “justice and fairness”.
  • (15) But that promise was beginning to startle the markets, which admire Monti’s appetite for austerity and fear the free spending and anti-European views of some Italian politicians.
  • (16) Healthbars such as Nakd fit this category and promise to deliver one of your five a day, based on the quantity of freeze-dried date paste used.
  • (17) The most promising method was chemoradiotherapy using multifractionation of a daily dose of irradiation, the 4-year survival rate of 20% being achieved.
  • (18) Trials of these therapeutic schemes promise a higher efficacy of the therapeutic measures for gastroesophageal reflux.
  • (19) The glory lay in the defiance, although the outcome of the tie scarcely looks promising for Arsenal when the return at Camp Nou next Tuesday is borne in mind.
  • (20) One of the big sticking points is cash – with rich countries so far failing to live up to promise to mobilise $100bn a year by 2020 for climate finance .

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