What's the difference between buffoon and silly?

Buffoon


Definition:

  • (n.) A man who makes a practice of amusing others by low tricks, antic gestures, etc.; a droll; a mimic; a harlequin; a clown; a merry-andrew.
  • (a.) Characteristic of, or like, a buffoon.
  • (v. i.) To act the part of a buffoon.
  • (v. t.) To treat with buffoonery.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The global face of Britain is now a buffoon (as many in Brussels describe him), whose word is as reliable as a used-car salesman’s.
  • (2) Talking last month on his late-night HBO show Last Week Tonight , Oliver ridiculed Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha's "dystopian nightmare" of a government, called Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn a "buffoon" and an "idiot", and ridiculed a clip of a contentious home video of the prince and his semi-naked wife at a poolside birthday party for their pet poodle Foo Foo.
  • (3) The National theatre's Broadway version of One Man, Two Guvnors, starring James Corden as a gluttonous buffoon, has received seven nominations at this year's Tony Awards – but was trumped by the largely British creative team behind Once , which picked up 11 to lead the pack.
  • (4) Described yesterday as a bully and buffoon, his predictions of doom under a multiracial democracy proved hollow and his support dwindled to a tiny rump.
  • (5) Well at least they wouldn't burn up on re-entry you fat-fingered buffoon.
  • (6) There’s also the fact that some of Reclaim Australia’s most prominent participants are racist buffoons of long standing .
  • (7) Even as he handed out wads of petrodollars to impoverished developing countries, their leaders mocked him behind his back for being a buffoon and a clown.
  • (8) The major parties offer a deranged rightwing sociopath provoking global war or a reality-TV buffoon with no actual policy, both of them hopelessly corrupt and staggeringly incompetent.
  • (9) Unlike Hank, Tambor need not worry that he's a talentless buffoon, but that doesn't mean he doesn't fret about it.
  • (10) The US media have seen him as an outrageous buffoon, a menace, an incipient tyrant, a creation of the fascist Twittersphere.
  • (11) Someone who seems to combine both careers, however, is Boris Johnson, who manages simultaneously to be both London mayor and zipwire-swinging buffoon.
  • (12) In my sport they literally tell you you have to act ignorant, act like a buffoon if you want to make it.
  • (13) Yesterday, the "buffoon" of South African politics was named as one of Africa's 10 most powerful young men by international business magazine Forbes.
  • (14) McMahon passed that on to his England team-mates, who figured they'd be lining out the next day against a band of bedraggled buffoons.
  • (15) Acting the buffoon is a winning political strategy, as Farage has discovered.
  • (16) "All I had ever seen was Boris being a buffoon on Have I Got News For You?.
  • (17) During the years of "kanaalen," she becomes the community buffoon who always has to play the clown.
  • (18) But in an intelligent way,” he added, “not getting embroiled in individual debates with buffoons who only want to provoke.
  • (19) Furthermore, convincing your fellow audience members that you are honestly trying to contribute will recast you not as a selfish egotist but a lovable buffoon.
  • (20) His Vietnam war heroism was recast as cowardice by George W Bush’s allies in 2004, and Bush successfully portrayed Kerry as a foppish buffoon.

Silly


Definition:

  • (n.) Happy; fortunate; blessed.
  • (n.) Harmless; innocent; inoffensive.
  • (n.) Weak; helpless; frail.
  • (n.) Rustic; plain; simple; humble.
  • (n.) Weak in intellect; destitute of ordinary strength of mind; foolish; witless; simple; as, a silly woman.
  • (n.) Proceeding from want of understanding or common judgment; characterized by weakness or folly; unwise; absurd; stupid; as, silly conduct; a silly question.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We just hope that … maybe she’s gone to see her friend, talk some sense into her,” Renu said, adding that Shamima “knew that it was a silly thing to do” and that she did not know why her friend had done it.
  • (2) And Myers is cautioned after a silly block 3.21am GMT 54 mins Besler with a long-throw for SKC but it's cleared.
  • (3) As if to prove her silly dilettantism, when a journalist asked Dasha about her favourite artists, she replied, "I'm, like, really bad at remembering names."
  • (4) Some of them, pulled together for the manifesto, are silly, or doomed, or simply there for shock value - information points in the form of holograms of Dixon of Dock Green, the legalisation of soft drugs, official brothels opposite Westminster, complete with division bells.
  • (5) I am of a similar vintage and, like many friends and fans of the series, bemoan the fact that we are generally treated by society as silly, weak, daft, soppy, prejudiced (even bigoted), risk-averse and wary of new situations.
  • (6) I had more fun with Matt Winning , delivering a silly set on the Free Fringe imagining himself the son of Robert Mugabe.
  • (7) Facebook Twitter Pinterest In an essay for the Hollywood Reporter, Camille Paglia writes that Swift promotes a ‘silly, regressive public image’.
  • (8) His selection on Twitter, he added, was “all in no particular order, off the top of my head, and the most incomplete of lists”, put together in response to Talese’s “silliness”.
  • (9) As soon as they saw how serious it was, they switched from being my silly, fun friends into being the most reliable and amazing people.
  • (10) They were all young, and it was a party house, devoted to games of hide and seek, music, silly practical jokes and food fights in the drawing room.
  • (11) As a result, one or two wrote some rather silly things in their reports,” Wilshaw said.
  • (12) ‘Silly things said by a silly man’ To be honest I really don’t care what BoJo says.
  • (13) People usually don't make silly, careless mistakes when they're motivated and working in a positive environment.
  • (14) Watching “our lads” pretending to mouth questionable lyrics about God giving the Queen near-immortal life, and her being the victor when she’s not really of fighting age, is silly.
  • (15) Imagine my relief this week then, when I found out that I can now let go of all my silly gay politics.
  • (16) We have referees who are unfamiliar with that silly "Goaltender Interference" technicality.
  • (17) The syndrome he described--a psychosis of early onset with a deteriorating course characterized by a "silly" affect, behavioral peculiarities, and formal thought disorder--not only adumbrated Kraepelin's generic category of dementia praecox but quite specifically defined the later subtype of hebephrenic, or disorganized, schizophrenia as well.
  • (18) "But they're so silly that I must say I never found them intimidating."
  • (19) Just as certain songs become inextricably associated in our minds with certain eras (before the invention of iPods, that is, after which everyone could walk around every day with all the songs in the world on shuffle), so too do silly trends.
  • (20) In 2014, she began working as a writer at Late Night with Seth Meyers; her first standup spot on that show began with a joke that typified both her silliness and confidence.