What's the difference between clash and skirmish?

Clash


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To make a noise by striking against something; to dash noisily together.
  • (v. i.) To meet in opposition; to act in a contrary direction; to come onto collision; to interfere.
  • (v. t.) To strike noisily against or together.
  • (n.) A loud noise resulting from collision; a noisy collision of bodies; a collision.
  • (n.) Opposition; contradiction; as between differing or contending interests, views, purposes, etc.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There will be no statutory inquiry or independent review into the notorious clash between police and miners at Orgreave on 18 June 1984 , the home secretary, Amber Rudd, has announced.
  • (2) A 45-year-old mother of four, named as Hediye Sen, was killed during clashes in Cizre, while a 70-year-old died of a heart attack during fighting in Silopi, according to hospital sources.
  • (3) Stray bottles were thrown over the barriers towards officers to cheers and chants of: “Shame on you, we’re human too.” The Met deployed what it described as a “significant policing operation”, including drafting in thousands of extra officers to tackle expected unrest, after previous events ended in arrests and clashes with police across the centre of the capital.
  • (4) Greece sincerely had no intention of clashing with its partners, Varoufakis insisted, but the logic of austerity was such that policies conducted in its embrace could only fail.
  • (5) The early evening clashes brought a dramatic end to a day that had started off with three large funeral rallies through the suburbs of Manama.
  • (6) Two men were arrested before the north London derby as football fans clashed with police.
  • (7) Gunfire and explosions rocked Bangkok following clashes between pro-government "red shirts" and protesters, leading to fears of further violence as Thais head to the polls.
  • (8) The clash is the latest in a deadly stream of attacks since July, which officials said had already claimed the lives of at least 70 members of the security services and hundreds of PKK militants.
  • (9) Clashes between the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and the Kurdish president, Massoud Barzani, have been escalating since the US withdrawal at the end of 2011, leading to speculation about the declaration of an independent Kurdish state .
  • (10) South Korea was put on high alert a year ago amid fears that the North was about to provoke a clash in the contested waters of the Yellow Sea.
  • (11) 8.56pm BST Howard Amos, who spent this afternoon and evening in Odessa on the scene of clashes between pro-Kiev and pro-Moscow protesters , has filed a report on what he saw.
  • (12) The clashes between the moralistic Levin and his friend Oblonsky, sometimes affectionate, sometimes angry, and Levin's linkage of modernity to Oblonsky's attitudes – that social mores are to be worked around and subordinated to pleasure, that families are base camps for off-base nooky – undermine one possible reading of Anna Karenina , in which Anna is a martyr in the struggle for the modern sexual freedoms that we take for granted, taken down by the hypocritical conservative elite to which she, her lover and her husband belong.
  • (13) It also creates the potential for clashes in the studio between BNP members and anti-racism groups who have also urged supporters to try to join the audience.
  • (14) One source familiar with the campaign said Lewandowski had clashed with Ivanka Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, and was even trying to plant negative stories about Trump’s son-in-law in the press.
  • (15) The Ivory Coast international Sagbo had won the penalty from which Hull scored through Robbie Brady – a decision labelled "incredibly soft" by the Norwich manager, Chris Hughton – but minutes later was sent off after he clashed with Russell Martin.
  • (16) Pro- and anti-GM organisations clashed on Tuesday over the accuracy of industry figures that suggested a rise internationally of 8% in the acreage of GM crops in 2011, a 16th straight rise since they were first sold in 1996.
  • (17) While the Associated Press reported that there were "concerns [the march] would provoke clashes between gays and their opponents", Mayorov told Interfax that the city's decision rested on their wish to "respect morality in the education of the younger generation".
  • (18) Several of the candidates who ran against Lukashenko were arrested and the top opposition leader, Vladimir Neklyaev, was forcibly taken from the hospital where he was being treated after he and two other candidates were beaten during clashes with government forces.
  • (19) Officers in riot gear at a number of points later drew batons and clashed with members of the crowd, hours after the protest began gathering in central London at around 6pm before massing near parliament, where fireworks were let off to cheers.
  • (20) Late on Friday afternoon, violent clashes broke out between Papua New Guinea police and detainees.

Skirmish


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To fight slightly or in small parties; to engage in a skirmish or skirmishes; to act as skirmishers.
  • (v. i.) A slight fight in war; a light or desultory combat between detachments from armies, or between detached and small bodies of troops.
  • (v. i.) A slight contest.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This we can see writ large in the prime minister’s skirmishes with Philip Hammond , the only member of government visibly considering the national interest.
  • (2) Manouras added: We will only know once the coroner has conducted an autopsy, but what I can say is that there were no police or skirmishes at the spot at which he died.
  • (3) But decades of struggle and skirmishes with neighbours have resulted in a tightly guarded border, and they were soon captured by men in uniform.
  • (4) On Wembley Way the party atmosphere had been briefly punctuated by a skirmish between rival fans.
  • (5) Benghazi's special forces, who declared support for Haftar, have skirmished with the militias he is targeting but the general himself has not yet been inside the city.
  • (6) But the confrontation quickly escalated into a series of skirmishes as the two sides played a deadly cat and mouse game in the centre of the city.
  • (7) On the face of it, this was little more than a skirmish in a town on Mali's north-east confines.
  • (8) For the UN negotiators in Qatar, this year's talks are just the skirmishes before the key date of 2015, when a new global agreement must be achieved.
  • (9) But Panorama's North Korea film, due to be broadcast on Monday, presents a challenge of a different order to the skirmish earlier last week about playing a song on the charts that could be taken as disrespectful to Lady Thatcher.
  • (10) No, I see it as being the right opportunity at the right time,” says a man desperate to break Wearside’s perennial relegation skirmishes.
  • (11) That interpretation was then corroborated by Labour MPs, who either hadn’t read the document or saw it as a handy weapon in skirmishes for control of the party’s election message.
  • (12) 4.08pm: Below the line, baerchen is upbeat : "Having watched England's superstar striker give the ball away umpty-nine times against Man City last night with some of the clumsiest touches seen since my brief skirmish with a girl from Hackenthorpe in 1971, they might as well give the job to Charles Chimp for all the difference it will make.
  • (13) It is the latest skirmish in the bitter infighting that has befallen Ukip since the election in which the party won 4 million votes but just one parliamentary seat.
  • (14) While the skirmish between Chris Christie and Paul over terrorism and its prevention via surveillance got a lot of media attention this week , it's more helpful to look at the general trend among potential candidates.
  • (15) Police fired volleys of tear gas canisters into a crowd of thousands - people in office clothes as well as youths in masks who had fought skirmishes throughout the day - scattering them into side streets and nearby hotels.
  • (16) When TV cameras start filming skirmishes in the crowd, Trump argues their focus on the protesters is evidence of liberal media bias.
  • (17) This rapidly escalating skirmish in American culture wars came after the Department of Justice sued North Carolina for a state law that forced people to only use public bathrooms that correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificates.
  • (18) In Tripoli, fighters from the GNC’s militia force, Libya Dawn , have turned on each other in several nights of skirmishing, even as pro-Tobruk forces battle Libya Dawn for control of the coastal highway west of the city.
  • (19) Skirmishes have flared outside Iraqi’s second largest city over the last few days with an airstrike on one of its main bridges on Sunday.
  • (20) It's the first battle cry in the pair's hair-raising physical and mental skirmish and has become something approaching a catchphrase.