What's the difference between bluster and swagger?

Bluster


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To blow fitfully with violence and noise, as wind; to be windy and boisterous, as the weather.
  • (v. i.) To talk with noisy violence; to swagger, as a turbulent or boasting person; to act in a noisy, tumultuous way; to play the bully; to storm; to rage.
  • (v. t.) To utter, or do, with noisy violence; to force by blustering; to bully.
  • (n.) Fitful noise and violence, as of a storm; violent winds; boisterousness.
  • (n.) Noisy and violent or threatening talk; noisy and boastful language.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) North Korea's blustering defiance at the annual US-South Korean exercises masks just a little fear that they could easily be turned into an all-out attack, and seems to work on the principle that the more you shout, the safer you will be.
  • (2) For all the bluster from Coalition MPs, farming communities will lose out.
  • (3) Ed Balls's bluster is confused and hypocritical when the reality is he'd do it all again," Fallon said.
  • (4) The curse of playing Ari Gold is that Jeremy Piven may have to spend the rest of his life trying to convince the world he is not a rage-fuelled blustering asshole.
  • (5) At which point restraint becomes as powerful as the Seeds' ravenous beer-hall bluster; a ten-minute Stagger Lee is a masterclass in tension and drama, Cave balancing precariously on the crowd barrier with audience members holding him up by the boot-heel as he leans out to sing his tale of a deviant killer directly into the eyes of a hypnotised girl in white hoisted on someone's shoulders.
  • (6) Cameron added that recent warnings from banks such as Lloyds and RBS, and from firms such as BP and Shell proved that the economic and financial risks of independence were not bluff and bluster or bullying.
  • (7) A steady rise in the yes vote in recent opinion polls also established that voters did not buy "the bluff and bluster" of those opposed to independence.
  • (8) He has a pretty easy ride if he’s prepared but if he tries to bluster it could hurt him,” Mann said.
  • (9) Terre'Blanche's credibility as a political leader collapsed after the anti-black threats voiced by the extreme white right proved to be little more than bluster.
  • (10) But for all Clegg's bluster, he's not setting tough enough tests for the changes the prime minister must make to his NHS plans.
  • (11) This is nothing but bluster and hot air with precisely nothing achieved.
  • (12) The book has action, but it also has a point; it has pathos, where the film is all comic-action bluster.
  • (13) Besides the election of Trump, with all his attendant nationalist bluster and populist economic and trade pronouncements, Brexit has seen the UK turn its back on Europe on the back of economic and immigration concerns, and closer to home, the 2016 federal election culminated in the resurgence of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party.
  • (14) While many fiscal conservatives view Huckabee warily, he has a solid social conservative thread and a folksy charm that would pair well with Trump’s big city bluster.
  • (15) Underneath all the showbiz bluster, he was an old softie.
  • (16) From all accounts, he was a bully, a manipulator, and a blustering, pessimistic, emotionally dishonest man.
  • (17) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hillary Clinton criticizes the ‘bluster and bigotry’ of the Republican campaign Before Tuesday’s elections, Clinton was ahead of Sanders by 673 to 477 pledged delegates and – with the vast majority of super delegates too – was nearly halfway to securing the 2,383 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
  • (18) On the other hand, if Iran is dragging its feet and compliance problems have arisen, that would make it much easier for a new president to walk away from the deal.” Einhorn also expressed doubts that a Republican president, for all of the bluster among the current crop of candidates, would actually turn his back on an agreement if it appeared to be working.
  • (19) I think I have made a lot of sacrifices,” he blustered.
  • (20) In the past, Zevon has occasionally been guilty of LA sludge-rock bluster, but these songs flash back to the rough simplicity of his original inspiration, Bob Dylan.

Swagger


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To walk with a swaying motion; hence, to walk and act in a pompous, consequential manner.
  • (v. i.) To boast or brag noisily; to be ostentatiously proud or vainglorious; to bluster; to bully.
  • (v. t.) To bully.
  • (n.) The act or manner of a swaggerer.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There is a certain degree of swagger, a sudden interruption of panache, as Alan Moore enters the rather sterile Waterstones office where he has agreed to speak to me.
  • (2) From flood defences to Crossrail 2, corporation tax cuts to provision for people with disabilities , the risks of Brexit to £20m for Hull: this was a chancellor roaming the political landscape with undiminished swagger and not a hint of apology.
  • (3) Wenger had complained of a sinister media plot to brainwash Arsenal's home fans, as though they were easily led and swing in the breeze, but it all was sweetness and light as Aaron Ramsey continued his early season swagger.
  • (4) Such swagger would look naïve and unreflexive now, in a country assailed by anxiety about its own impotence in the world.
  • (5) Ratko Mladic, opening his defence in The Hague this week, has reason to understand the change in a way he did not when he was swaggering through the Bosnian killing fields.
  • (6) (This is not just swagger: Barton's brother Michael, after all, is currently serving a minimum of 17 years in prison for his part in the racially motivated murder of Anthony Walker in 2005.
  • (7) In an ideal world one of the candidates will swagger over to the other, as Al Gore did to George Bush in 2000.
  • (8) I am aware, too, that I associate tattoos on men with aggression, the kind of arrogant swagger that goes with vest tops, dogs on chains, broken beer glasses.
  • (9) Twin muses of Liam Gallagher and Jimi Hendrix added up to louche tailoring, flower prints and urban staples like a swagger-tastic Gallagher parka.
  • (10) A distinct swagger in his step became apparent as his career developed at Boro but right up until his appearance at Bradford crown court, there had been little evidence of a genuinely darker side to his nature.
  • (11) Lucky enough to catch him playing its songs at New York’s Ritz early in 1981, I was instantly won over by his thrilling talent and androgynous swagger.
  • (12) Cut to the elegant hotel corridor, Gimme Shelter screaming on the soundtrack, and Denzel emerges, swaggering and magnificent in full pilot's uniform, ready to go to work.
  • (13) The 22-year-old was outstanding, a swaggering, forceful presence who left City's players with little choice but to hack him down.
  • (14) Most important are the donors, who can usually be spotted by their swagger and the strong smell of cigar-smoke.
  • (15) Tottenham’s Denmark playmaker had not completed 90 minutes since 15 August, a knee injury hampering his early-season form, but two free-kick equalisers blew away the cobwebs here and ensured deserved parity for his team in a vibrant game characterised by swagger on the ball and defensive jitters off it.
  • (16) In Richard Moore’s book The Bolt Supremacy he describes the odd cocktail of bonhomie and saccharine that surrounded the sprinter’s swaggering conquest of London 2012.
  • (17) It is an assessment that continues to resonate, not just because of who it came from but also because it aptly encapsulates the swaggering brilliance of that Liverpool team, one which having crushed Forest went on to clinch the club's 17th league championship at a canter.
  • (18) Promoting Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp swaggered through the hall dressed as his character, Captain Jack Sparrow, as fans were told that Orlando Bloom’s character, Will Turner, will return for the fifth instalment of the franchise, Dead Men Tell No Tales, in 2017.
  • (19) Former Labour staffers, moderate refugees fleeing the hard-left takeover under Corbyn, sometimes bristled at what they saw as unmerited swagger in the step of the Downing Street contingent, who expected to easily replicate their victory in the previous May’s general election.
  • (20) But it also reflects US elite breast-beating about economic failure, the rise of China and a loss of global swagger since the Bush years.