What's the difference between clownery and tomfoolery?
Clownery
Definition:
(n.) Clownishness.
Example Sentences:
Tomfoolery
Definition:
(n.) Folly; trifling.
Example Sentences:
(1) The equaliser came from United’s first chance of any note and it followed a bit of tomfoolery from the West Ham fans behind De Gea’s goal.
(2) Anderson has long been an admirer of Robert Altman, another herbalist of renown, and Inherent Vice’s reeling tomfoolery is a bit reminiscent of MASH (from where The Last Supper pastiche is also pinched , if you can pinch a pastiche).
(3) But a week later, on Friday 15 May, the bug in Perkins’s car caught his passenger, Jones, bragging: “The biggest cash robbery in history at the time and now the biggest tom [short for tomfoolery, slang for jewellery] in the fucking world, that’s what they are saying … And what a book you could write, fucking hell.” That day Perkins also said stolen Indian gold could be his pension: “I’m going to melt my good gold down.” Later, Asian necklaces, bangles and pendants were recovered.
(4) 10.07pm BST 48 min: Brazil pile forward in search of ... something, apparently oblivious to the fact that it's that sort of tomfoolery that got them into this horrible mess in the first place.
(5) Even when she is enjoying a wee bit of carnal tomfoolery, it is all sophisticated.
(6) On one Little Britain web forum, cited last year by the columnist Johann Hari, the link between prime-time tomfoolery and social attitudes became crystal clear: "Down here in Bristol," wrote one subscriber, "we have an area called Southmead, which is absolutely packed with Vickys wearing fluorescent tracksuits.
(7) A bit of harmless tomfoolery that verges on the moving.
(8) As well as using Twitter to encourage online activity, she answered absurd questions on Reddit, spearheaded an eight-hour reading of the 1961 science-fiction novel Solaris , organised a flashmob in Oslo, collaborated with Lady Gaga on a video recreating the famous Abramovic Method in the nude, and practised some light-hearted tomfoolery as she described with deliberate deadpan just how many hours it takes a performance artist to change a light bulb .
(9) James and the Heat quickly put an end to the tomfoolery with a blowout Game 2 win , and proceeded to win the next three games to advance to the Eastern Conference finals, to face the Indiana Pacers.
(10) I see your argument about horses, the World Spirit, and about tomfoolery and disrespect, as well as why and how all these elements are so connected to each other.
(11) 3.09pm GMT 84 min: Gascoigne nails a glorious 60-yard crossfield pass to Lineker, who is just about to put the ball back in the box when Platt is penalized for some off-the-ball tomfoolery 3.09pm GMT 83 min: That’s Lineker’s tenth World Cup goal: four this year and six in 1986.
(12) Tunnel tomfoolery: The teams walk out of the Old Trafford tunnel holding their little mini-me mascots by the hand.
(13) Judged in terms of emotional voltage and sheer nail-biting fascination, Foster's monologue (not so much a public declaration that she is gay as a celebration of privacy in general) risked casting Argo's high-wire antics as so much excitable tomfoolery.
(14) Somehow, this bit of tomfoolery – so old that one imagines even the Harlem Globetrotters have phased it out – has caused enough controversy to provoke the ire of the NBA.