What's the difference between blithely and merrily?
Blithely
Definition:
(adv.) In a blithe manner.
Example Sentences:
(1) On Wednesday, the ire of the marchers was focused on all those Lib Dems who blithely signed the NUS's anti-fees pledge ("I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative" – yesterday, Nick Clegg limply said that he "should have been more careful" than to put his name to it).
(2) Instead, the spending review blithely asserted "couples with children must work 24 hours per week between them" in order to get a credit that is worth up to an annual maximum of £3,870.
(3) Last month, for example, the Daily Telegraph's Peter Oborne bemoaned their "devastating" fate, in a piece worth quoting at reasonable length, if only to prove that the idea of an out-of-touch elite blithely wreaking havoc is not the preserve of hard-bitten lefties.
(4) This is why, you see, people with rucksacks pummel all those in their immediate vicinity with their giant sacks as they trundle on their way, whacking them about as they blithely move about trains, pavements or any other public area.
(5) These films were a blithe rebuttal of the critic Edward Said’s insight that, in a novel like Mansfield Park, the “English” story necessarily concealed the story, located elsewhere but inextricable from the main narrative, of a West Indian sugar plantation.
(6) Click here for the Magic in the Moonlight trailer Compared with the gloomy ruminations on ageing and aspiration that characterised the well-received Blue Jasmine, which won Cate Blanchett an Oscar , this is Allen going back to the knockabout farce and blithe May-December couplings that populate his lighter films.
(7) This narrative is a form of manufacture of innocence to mask a great crime: what your script blithely calls "the detainee program".
(8) Here lies our greatest risk, one insufficiently appreciated by those who so blithely accept the tentacles of corporation, press and state insinuating their way into the private sphere.
(9) When he arrived at the venue and was confronted by a motley horde of fans, tipped off by a tweet, instead of sidling in the back to pace about alone in a corridor, like a normal human would, Fry blithely faced the crowd, chatting and signing autographs.
(10) She says she "naively stumbled into the campaign", starting the petition on Change.org, which she found through a Google search, and setting her target at a blithely optimistic 1m signatures.
(11) I have a concern that there are too many of them – and most will gather dust on shelves, and hospitals will go blithely on as they always have.
(12) But they blithely ignore the fact that wealth isn't being created under the existing broken economic model.
(13) Mr Osborne can hardly not know this, but he continues blithely to define living within our means as a government challenge, rather than a wider challenge to the entire public and private sector.
(14) Yes, when we all had the blithe assumption that houses would always rise in value, that bankers were always going to get £3m bonuses.
(15) In a fascinating recent article the economist Tyler Cowen pointed out the problem with blithe assumptions about a better future – they miss out on the history of what actually happened in the great industrial transformations of the past.
(16) Phone jammed to her ear, laptop open on her knee, she was blithely conducting a conference call while wearing highlighter foils.
(17) The original sin of the euro-enthusiasts was to settle the politics first and then blithely assume that the economics would sort themselves out.
(18) This distinction, popularised by Michael Ignatieff in the mid-1990s, has received much debate, which Bragg blithely ignores.
(19) It’s just interesting that home advantage – the chance to build a rapport with local audiences; familiarity with local culture, etc – is being blithely squandered.
(20) But clearly there is a difference between blithely hurtling into catastrophe and trying to lead a party away from it.
Merrily
Definition:
(adv.) In a merry manner; with mirth; with gayety and laughter; jovially. See Mirth, and Merry.
Example Sentences:
(1) David Cameron spoke of the "thickness" of the glass ceiling she smashed through, again as if other women had been clambering merrily through the gaping governmental hole she had thoughtfully crafted ever since.
(2) Newcastle are merrily vaulting up the league on the back of three successive wins (plus another in the Capital One Cup), earning more points in a fortnight than they had from the previous 15 games over nearly seven months.
(3) 9.15pm BST 72 min: As Dortmund fans sing merrily Real continue to attack limply.
(4) Segel threw himself into the movie with gusto, and merrily dances alongside his puppet pals in full-scale song-and-dance numbers.
(5) Ukip, however, has been happy to step into the empty space the mainstream has created, merrily stirring up resentment by linking low wages and immigration, as if this is the personal fault of immigrants, rather than an inevitable aspect of globalisation.
(6) But still, it’s not actually very nice, merrily passing round emails that are none of our business for no reason other than amusement.
(7) 4.57pm BST The Italian tune passes off without a hitch, a jaunty number with which the players sing along merrily, though Pirlo, as ever, seems to be putting to be putting in less effort than everyone else - but he probably has the voice of Pavarotti.
(8) At the end Swann, unusually batting two places above Broad, swung merrily alongside the stalwart Steve Mullaney so that Nottinghamshire could set a target, which would prove beyond the capacity of brave Glamorgan.
(9) A new production of his show Merrily We Roll Along is at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London SE1 (020 7378 1713), until 23 February.
(10) It felt like we were really making the Merrily We Dance.” Still, even if he becomes the breakout star of Hail, Caesar!, Ehrenreich is probably best known for the YA witchcraft movie Beautiful Creatures – a very different kettle of fish, one would assume.
(11) Also nominated are John Tiffany (Once), Maria Friedman (Merrily We Roll Along) and the outgoing National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner (Othello).
(12) Around the time of signing that contract, Cresswell, perhaps not able to believe his good luck or gall, was reported to have been seen merrily burning money at the bar of Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms.
(13) He may offend vast swaths of the globe and merrily refer to people from Papua New Guinea as “ cannibals ”, but he does so with a boyish grin that makes it look as though he’s just being honest.
(14) Needless to say, Darcey is utterly unfazed, merrily pottering along with a nonchalant air.
(15) who like nothing better than settling down with a good book, or merrily browsing the internet, exploring content for hours on end.
(16) On Thursday he sounded hoarse and shrill as he poured scorn on opponents for the umpteenth time, causing much amusement among Twitter users merrily circumnavigating the ban .
(17) "I've got no inner life," he declares merrily, something that is plainly untrue.
(18) Merrily Watkins Late thirties, single mother with a difficult teenager, Merrily Watkins is a parish priest ... and exorcist (or, as rebranded by the modern Church of England, "Deliverance Consultant").
(19) His wife, the actor Carey Mulligan , took some persuading on it ... Mumford and Mulligan married in April, and she is here at the venue today, merrily flitting about the wings, wearing a jumper with a large letter M on it.
(20) Just two hours later, I find myself riding merrily alongside Juan Manuel, herding sheep.