What's the difference between charity and pity?

Charity


Definition:

  • (n.) Love; universal benevolence; good will.
  • (n.) Liberality in judging of men and their actions; a disposition which inclines men to put the best construction on the words and actions of others.
  • (n.) Liberality to the poor and the suffering, to benevolent institutions, or to worthy causes; generosity.
  • (n.) Whatever is bestowed gratuitously on the needy or suffering for their relief; alms; any act of kindness.
  • (n.) A charitable institution, or a gift to create and support such an institution; as, Lady Margaret's charity.
  • (n.) Eleemosynary appointments [grants or devises] including relief of the poor or friendless, education, religious culture, and public institutions.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The court hearing – in a case of the kind likely to be heard in secret if the government's justice and security bill is passed – was requested by the law firm Leigh Day and the legal charity Reprieve, acting for Serdar Mohammed, tortured by the Afghan security services after being transferred to their custody by UK forces.
  • (2) As both a high-impact charity and a successful business, perhaps Mr Osborne believes we are divided against ourselves?
  • (3) Now, a small Scottish charity, Edinburgh Direct Aid – moved by their plight and aware that the language of Lebanese education is French and English and that Syria is Arabic – is delivering textbooks in Arabic to the school and have offered to fund timeshare projects across the country.
  • (4) Housing charity Shelter puts the shortage of affordable housing in England at between 40,000 and 60,000 homes a year.
  • (5) "It looks as if the noxious mix of rightwing Australian populism, as represented by Crosby and his lobbying firm, and English saloon bar reactionaries, as embodied by [Nigel] Farage and Ukip, may succeed in preventing this government from proceeding with standardised cigarette packs, despite their popularity with the public," said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the health charity Action on Smoking and Health.
  • (6) May is due to announce that Dennis Stevenson, a former HBOS chairman and a mental health campaigner, will lead a review alongside Paul Farmer, the chief executive of the mental health charity Mind.
  • (7) Even Paul Bright had to get a private charity to fund half his work.
  • (8) The two flight attendants feature in February and March in the annual Ryanair charity calendar.
  • (9) This is a moral swamp, but it's one the Salvation Army claims to be stepping into out of charity .
  • (10) The work was published as a charity calendar the following year.
  • (11) As well as stocking second-hand items for purchase, charity shops such as Oxfam have launched Christmas gifts to provide specific help for poor communities abroad.
  • (12) It acts as a one-stop shop bringing together credit unions and other organisations, such as Five Lamps , a charity providing loans, and white-goods providers willing to sell products with low-interest repayments.
  • (13) Tim Potter, managing director of support charity the Fragile X Society , adds that the challenges Tom faces in the film will give "hope and encouragement to many other families".
  • (14) Lion cubs fathered by Cecil, the celebrated lion shot dead in Zimbabwe , may already have been killed by a rival male lion and even if they were still alive there was nothing conservationists could do to protect them, a conservation charity has warned.
  • (15) Komen spokeswoman Leslie Aun said the cut-off results from the charity's newly adopted criteria barring grants to organisations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities.
  • (16) The charity Bite the Ballot , which persuaded hundreds of thousands to register before the last general election, is to set up “democracy cafes” in Starbucks branches, laying on experts to explain how to register and vote, and what the referendum is all about (Bite the Ballot does not take sides but merely encourages participation).
  • (17) Raindrops on Roses Photograph: Felix Clay This boutique style, high-end gift shop in St Albans is one of a new breed of charity shops.
  • (18) The two polls underline the extent to which the coalition parties have been hit by a budget that has led to a slew of bad headlines over the granny tax, pasty tax and charities tax.
  • (19) To mark World Aids Day, THT is opening a charity shop in Soho Estates’ Walkers Court development in central Soho.
  • (20) As a legal practice and a charity combined we are distinct – anyone with any condition can come to us for advice.

Pity


Definition:

  • (n.) Piety.
  • (n.) A feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow-feeling; commiseration.
  • (n.) A reason or cause of pity, grief, or regret; a thing to be regretted.
  • (v. t.) To feel pity or compassion for; to have sympathy with; to compassionate; to commiserate; to have tender feelings toward (any one), awakened by a knowledge of suffering.
  • (v. t.) To move to pity; -- used impersonally.
  • (v. i.) To be compassionate; to show pity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The voters don’t do gratitude, self-pitying politicians are wont to moan.
  • (2) With grievous amazement, never self-pitying but sometimes bordering on a sort of numbed wonderment, Levi records the day-to-day personal and social history of the camp, noting not only the fine gradations of his own descent, but the capacity of some prisoners to cut a deal and strike a bargain, while others, destined by their age or character for the gas ovens, follow "the slope down to the bottom, like streams that run down to the sea".
  • (3) "); hopeless self-pity ("Nobody said anything to me about Billy ... all day long") and rage ("You want to put a bench in the park in Billy's name?
  • (4) Indeed, mainstream economics is a pitifully thin distillation of historical wisdom on the topics that it addresses.
  • (5) Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?” It is there to remind him that the dots are worth fighting for.
  • (6) Last year, Amnesty International described the world’s response as “pitiful” and earlier this week, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants called on the EU to deliver a proper resettlement programme.
  • (7) April's family had to endure the "spectacle of your hypocritical sympathy for their loss and of your tears", the judge told Bridger, saying any tears were motivated purely by self-pity.
  • (8) And this is the mainspring of so many of his stories, novellas, and his one novel, Beware of Pity : the clash between propriety and desire.
  • (9) It’s actually a pity that there’s now a break because I wanted to continue playing games,” said the Italian.
  • (10) In his final fight, against the journeyman boxer Kevin McBride, he was a pitiful figure - slumped in a corner, legs splayed, unable or unwilling to stand himself up.
  • (11) Other negative emotions – self-pity, guilt, apathy, pessimism, narcissism – make it a deeply unattractive illness to be around, one that requires unusual levels of understanding and tolerance from family and friends.
  • (12) He said it was a “pity” that the UK prime minister “wasn’t able to express the British position at the press conference with Donald Trump standing next to her”.
  • (13) As the turbulent commercial radio sector enters another new phase, Park wants to sweep away the thinking that has left too many of his colleagues wallowing in self-pity, and turn his fire on a familiar target.
  • (14) Broadly defined, this sort of behaviour involves procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, obstructionism, self-pity and a tendency to create chaotic situations.
  • (15) It is a pity we did not take our chances,” the Ukraine coach, Mykhailo Fomenko, said.
  • (16) "This depressing morning has now got me questioning my pitiful existence," sobs James Dodge.
  • (17) Foreign dignitaries were invited to attend for the first time and it is a pity that from Europe only Javier Solana chose to take the offer up.
  • (18) Men convicted of rape are often pitied in the media and, like Evans, quickly vault back to positions of fame .
  • (19) But after the strange denials that this old, sick man is dying I want to talk not with pity but of his power.
  • (20) Staff here dread the welfare reform bill, waiting for debts, arrears, evictions and pitiful hardship to wash up on their doorstep.