What's the difference between courageous and foolhardy?

Courageous


Definition:

  • (a.) Possessing, or characterized by, courage; brave; bold.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I know I have the courage to deal with all the sniping but you worry about the effects on your family."
  • (2) It also devalues the courage of real whistleblowers who have used proper channels to hold our government accountable.” McCain added: “It is a sad, yet perhaps fitting commentary on President Obama’s failed national security policies that he would commute the sentence of an individual that endangered the lives of American troops, diplomats, and intelligence sources by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, a virulently anti-American organisation that was a tool of Russia’s recent interference in our elections.” WikiLeaks last year published emails hacked from the accounts of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s election campaign.
  • (3) He made me laugh and cry, and his courage in writing about what he was going through was sometimes quite overwhelming.
  • (4) Gin was popularised in the UK via British troops who were given the spirit as “Dutch courage” during the 30 years’ war.
  • (5) This was a courageous move in a society where women were confined to purdah.
  • (6) The woman said it took her until the mid-1990s to pluck up the courage to report the abuse to Jersey's children's services department – and that her allegations were not taken seriously enough.
  • (7) My hope is that those who are at the Games take these words and let them echo, with grace, courage and dignity, in whatever way they choose to, because it will make a difference to those participating, and to those watching.
  • (8) After Japanese troops invaded the Chinese city of Nanking (now Nanjing) in 1937, slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians, Hirohito said he was "deeply satisfied" by the troops' courage in quickly seizing the city.
  • (9) And with that courage, we can stand together for good jobs and just wages.
  • (10) Honest journalism and the courageous whistleblowers who denounce human rights violations or attempts against state sovereignty deserve to be protected.
  • (11) These inspiring and courageous women are up against a highly resourced state that looks after its own.
  • (12) Congratulating Mr Rabin and Mr Arafat on having the courage to change, a Clintonite speciality, he went on: 'Above all, let us dedicate ourselves to your region's next generation.
  • (13) Alicia deserves praise for courageously standing up to Trump’s attacks.
  • (14) In the Russian gallery, for example, the courageous Vadim Zakharov presents a pointed version of the Danaë myth in which an insouciant dictator (of whom it is hard not to think: Putin) sits on a high beam on a saddle, shelling nuts all day while gold coins rain down from a vast shower-head only to be hoisted in buckets by faceless thuggish men in suits.
  • (15) They’re losing fear and they’re gaining courage, especially from the military positions he’s taken.
  • (16) They had announced Thursday that "as a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased."
  • (17) Essential traits of this personality are an independent mind capable of liberating itself from dogmatic tenets universally accepted by the scientific community; the capacity and courage to look at things from a new angle; powers of combination, intuition and imagination; feu sacré and perseverance--in short, intellectual as well as moral qualities.
  • (18) Cubism as practised by Picasso and Braque they thought courageous, up to a point, but misguided.
  • (19) The doubts over what some see as Miliband's lack of presentational skills and "wonkiness" have, in part, been stilled by his flashes of courage and intuitive accord with the public mood – on Libor, on predatory capitalism, on Murdoch.
  • (20) It cannot be right that anyone who has found the courage to escape their abusive or violent partner should be subjected to the stress and torment of being confronted and interrogated by them in any court.” Research by charity Women’s Aid suggests a quarter of women in family court proceedings have been cross-examined by an abusive former partner.

Foolhardy


Definition:

  • (a.) Daring without judgment; foolishly adventurous and bold.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "The labour data suggests that the recovery is ticking over quite nicely, though it would be foolhardy to get complacent given that the risks facing the economy are skewed to the downside."
  • (2) It would be foolhardy to venture technological predictions for 2050.
  • (3) E.ON was the only one brave – or foolhardy – enough to put its head above the parapet and make a formal application to the government.
  • (4) Plainly the system has faults, but seeking to upend things at a time when the public can see no imminent need for change might be considered brave if not foolhardy.
  • (5) It would be foolhardy to offer an inflexible step-care protocol for the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, given its heterogeneity and our uncertainty about its pathogenesis.
  • (6) But for me to say ‘this is what we’re going to do’ would be very foolhardy in the first place and, secondly, dishonest because the truth is I don’t know.” He couched it perfectly, especially for those who were with him on the training camp in Miami before the World Cup when, barely a day after one of his predecessors, Sven-Goran Eriksson, stated there was “absolutely no way” England could win it, the manager abandoned all restraint and fell into the trap.
  • (7) Is it foolhardy of the younger Joe to hang on to the life he knows, even when the future is warning him against it?
  • (8) It would be foolhardy for Iran to want to break out, they say, as there would be a high probability that its work would be discovered before it had made a single weapon.
  • (9) To throw that protection away in response to business demands without any plans to secure improvement in journalism is foolhardy and an insult to our local communities."
  • (10) "People thought we were extremely brave, or foolhardy," says Annie Hudson, Bristol social services divisional director for children, about her predecessor's decision to let in the cameras.
  • (11) The risk for Purnell is that his act of courage - or foolhardiness - will not pull the government down with him, but leave it standing but impotent, the cabinet weakened but intact, too strong to fall apart entirely even though too weak to command events.
  • (12) "[G]iven the deaths of 15 million people during the war, attempting to position 1918 as a simplistic, nationalistic triumph seems … foolhardy, not least because the very same tensions re-emerged to such deadly effect in 1939.
  • (13) Sending money to Washington and expecting central planners to send it back in a way that will grow jobs is foolhardy,” he said.
  • (14) Reviews are always somewhat retrospective in outlook; to write a review at the present time is especially foolhardy since developments in biology are such that totally new concepts can arise almost overnight, as it were.
  • (15) Actually using a bike as a means of getting from A to B along normal roads is still a matter for the brave and the foolhardy, and cyclists on the roads are a rare sight indeed.
  • (16) But flouting both simultaneously is for the foolhardy alone.
  • (17) It would be foolhardy to suggest we’re out of the woods yet, though, and share prices are likely to remain volatile for some time.” Markets have endured some of the worst volatility since the financial crisis amid fears over China’s slowing economy.
  • (18) Río Doce's willingness to go further than other local papers is not, however, foolhardy bravery.
  • (19) But at the moment, they are not recognised as anyone’s territory and we can sail legally, peacefully through these alleged 12-mile limits.” Conroy said while it would be “foolhardy” for the government to announce a freedom-of-navigation exercise in advance of it happening, Australia “should be prepared to defend the international system”.
  • (20) In what some have termed a foolhardy plan, others highly idealistic, the movement plans to reconstruct the city regardless of who wins the war.