What's the difference between behest and whim?

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.

Whim


Definition:

  • (n.) The European widgeon.
  • (n.) A sudden turn or start of the mind; a temporary eccentricity; a freak; a fancy; a capricious notion; a humor; a caprice.
  • (n.) A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes; -- called also whim gin, and whimsey.
  • (v. i.) To be subject to, or indulge in, whims; to be whimsical, giddy, or freakish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A group called Campaign for Houston , which led the opposition, described the ordinance as “an attack on the traditional family” designed for “gender-confused men who … can call themselves ‘women’ on a whim”.
  • (2) If we’re going to change the model, we can’t just do it on a whim of government or the people who design these courses.” What he does like about Think Ahead is that participants will be doing “proper social work”, even if, in his view, they will be unprepared for the task.
  • (3) The previous Ba’athist and Shia governments tried to deviate the Muslim generation from their path through their educational programmes that concord with their governments and political whims.
  • (4) Your whims are Benji's command, readers – tell us where to go!
  • (5) Instead it amounts to exploitation, decided at the whim of a Jobcentre Plus adviser."
  • (6) The only thing she wouldn't do was We Shall Overcome, too sacred to perform on a whim she tells me when I meet her later, besides which - and here she giggles - "we probably won't overcome.
  • (7) I’m probably the hardest bandleader to work for, but I do it for love.” His band have rehearsed around 300 songs, from which Prince can choose at whim, which makes playing live more fun that it used to be.
  • (8) But its purchase and use relies on satisfying personal whim, prejudice or educational fashion, not on considerations of educational efficiency.
  • (9) Journalists who work here are not part of the press pack who must always keep one eye looking over their shoulder at their proprietor’s political whims – on business, on taxation or the European Union.
  • (10) If your reforms are a matter of ideology, legacy, whim and faith, then, like many of your predecessors, you could simply say so, and leave "evidence" to people who mean it.
  • (11) During the local election campaign Farage has also jettisoned, seemingly on his whim, longstanding policies such as a flat rate of tax.
  • (12) The very things that give small charities their allure can also be their greatest limitations Having been managed by a founder in three out of my four major jobs, and working closely with one in the fourth, I have lived out all the symptoms: ad-hoc practices with no systems and processes, unilateral decisions at the whim of the founder, a resistance to professionalising and losing the personal touch, and a way of working that revolves entirely around one person because the assumption is that this immortal personality will be around forever.
  • (13) It isn’t a whim of Thea’s not to go back to the classroom.
  • (14) Significant peptide release occurred only when B15 was stimulated at high frequency or at lower frequencies with a relatively long burst duration (Whim and Lloyd, 1989).
  • (15) He has been right too often in this tournament for it to be down to random chance, to the whims of the gods and to be about anything but cold logic, a huge ego and a steely, steely nerve.
  • (16) We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord ... in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias, in those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands.” 7) Being rivals or boastful.
  • (17) That’s before fuel, water, food and tips for the crew, who will cater to the guests’ every whim as the yacht hops from Sardinia to Monaco to Greece or, during the winter, the Caribbean.
  • (18) But while both of us were at their whim, I pointed out that it was he, not security, who had notified Special Branch.
  • (19) Yet the choice of who should be employed as counselors is based on little more than personal whims of decision makers.
  • (20) Martin Donnelly, permanent secretary of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), did not just wake up one morning and, on a whim, write a lengthy and carefully argued defence of the old Whitehall verities.

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