What's the difference between crony and irony?

Crony


Definition:

  • (n.) A crone.
  • (n.) An intimate companion; a familiar frend

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As for the speaker in parliament Thura Shwe Mann, a former general, he has formed an improbable alliance with Aung San Suu Kyi, on the assumption that she might help him thwart the plans of his former cronies.
  • (2) Tony Abbott would put those same premiers in charge of the national environment with his plan to hand off federal environmental approval powers to his state cronies – an environmental disaster waiting to happen."
  • (3) However, Lord Oakeshott, a prominent Liberal Democrat peer, said honours "for Cameron's cronies and Osborne's donors dishonour the system", while John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, also criticised some of the awards, saying the "same old politicians' cronies are discrediting the honours system" adding "it's not what you know but who you know".
  • (4) From Tory philosopher Phillip Blond 's attacks on "individualism", to Tory MP Jesse Norman's criticism of monopolistic " crony capitalism ", to Ferdinand Mount – once head of Thatcher's Downing Street policy unit – worrying about the concentration of wealth among " the new few ", there is strengthening disquiet at some of the forces the 80s set in motion.
  • (5) Cameron and his cronies may have just been "born this way", but when they could choose to be on the side of women they simply haven't.
  • (6) He also claimed that David Cameron's party and its "cronies" were trying to create financial panic to frighten people into voting for them.
  • (7) The oil boom of the past few years has made the Aliyev family and its cronies extremely wealthy and the regime will do its utmost to keep power.
  • (8) The unprecedented rise in the cost of living and the deplorable state of hospitals have put the people in the exact position that Museveni and his cronies want them to be – a place where many are too worried about their next meal to care about abstract political ideas and rights.
  • (9) In Uncommon Danger, the representatives of communism and what Zaleshoff calls "moderate radicalism" but Kenton himself would probably think of as basic human decency are pitted against the agents of capital and fascism: Balterghen, Saridza and their many cronies.
  • (10) At an even slower pace, they seized the assets of half a dozen crony companies and recovered most of the coconut levy.
  • (11) He would face a predictable volley of criticism from Conservative-leaning papers who didn't like the idea of a former Blair toiler – or "labour crony" in Mail speak – at No 10 ruling the corporation they love to hate.
  • (12) New Labour had created a kind of "crony capitalism", he said.
  • (13) Nick Clegg has used his first intervention of the new year to map out a crackdown on "crony capitalism", vowing to take action against company tax avoidance, excessive executive pay and irresponsible capitalism.
  • (14) Unlike many crony capitalists who troll the halls of Congress looking for favors, the Kochs have consistently lobbied against special-interest politics.” Touching on a key plank of his attempted appeal to liberal voters , Paul continues: “[The Kochs] have always stood for freedom, equality and opportunity.
  • (15) Further revelations are expected as more US court documents are unsealed and the arrest and extradition process continues The Tory MP Damian Collins, a prime mover in the New Fifa Now campaign, said on Sunday: “We know Blatter will do all he can to try to retain influence over Fifa to protect himself and his cronies.
  • (16) Bell has always been described as "close to New Labour", though nobody would ever be rude enough to call him a crony.
  • (17) Zardari and his cronies in the presidency are immersed in all aspects of the government, as the regular press releases issued from his office make clear, with updates on him dealing with everything from flood control measures to foreign affairs.
  • (18) The two groups are also working to lift the ban on oil exports and to end funding for the US government’s Export-Import Bank, which they deem an example of “crony capitalism”.
  • (19) Borders campaigner Graeme Steel said: "Anyone else would be called a criminal for defying a judge but Alex Salmond and his Big Wind cronies think they can keep get away with it.
  • (20) It’s for crony capitalists to be able suck off of them.” If you think that sounds obscene, wait until you get to the part about slurping off the gravy train.

Irony


Definition:

  • (a.) Made or consisting of iron; partaking of iron; iron; as, irony chains; irony particles.
  • (a.) Resembling iron taste, hardness, or other physical property.
  • (n.) Dissimulation; ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist.
  • (n.) A sort of humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm, which adopts a mode of speech the meaning of which is contrary to the literal sense of the words.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) And the irony of it is it doesn't interest me at all.
  • (2) The irony of this type of self-manipulation is that ultimately the child, or adult, finds himself again burdened by impotence, though it is the impotence of guilt rather than that of shame.
  • (3) The irony is that we have more media than ever before, but less insight.
  • (4) Richard Aylard, director of sustainability and external affairs for Thames Water, said the firm was aware of the irony that heavy rain had set in after the hosepipe ban was announced.
  • (5) One of the terrible ironies of the Iraq War is that President Bush used the threat of nuclear terrorism to invade a country that had no active nuclear program.
  • (6) That he was able to keep his secret treasures here, not in some remote corner of the globe but in the centre of the city that gave birth to the National Socialist movement, is both extraordinary and not short of a certain dark irony.
  • (7) He is wary of pretension, alive to all shades of irony.
  • (8) There was a thing at the time that said basically: 'Oh, the working classes obviously don't understand this is irony, so Harry's had to kill him off.'
  • (9) But the character – compounded of piercing sanity and existential despair, infinite hesitation and impulsive action, self-laceration and observant irony – is so multi-faceted, it is bound to coincide at some point with an actor’s particular gifts.
  • (10) The irony of her image being exchanged in return for commodities in the future,” she said, “seems to recall the way that actual slaves’ bodies were serving as currencies of exchange.” Larson arrived at a different conclusion about the honor.
  • (11) In the end, though, practical rethinkers have to get beyond the delights of irony and paradox in which Glasman too often wraps himself.
  • (12) There is a perverse irony that people who have cracked their iPhones are now being targeted by hackers.
  • (13) The irony of this is that today, when I was getting all of this horrible antisemitic shit that I’ve only ever seen in Russia, I was reminded that 26 years ago today my family came to the US from Russia.
  • (14) The irony is an uncomfortable one for policymakers.
  • (15) Because of our slightly younger average age and city location, we were supposedly one of the "new wave" WIs that had started springing up in the years before – groups that rejected crochet and did more modern activities, often with more than a tinge of irony.
  • (16) White House officials said that Obama, who was planning to work on the final draft of his speech on his flight from Washington to Oslo, would directly address the issue of the irony of being awarded the peace prize while escalating the war.
  • (17) Labour's pensions spokesman, Gregg McClymont, said: "The irony is that there are lots of good pension schemes out there that are being undermined by what is going on.
  • (18) She is being helpful, no doubt about that, but there is an unconscious note of power play – not to mention the sweet irony of my having provoked her into pulling not one but two phones out of her bag within seconds of us sitting down.
  • (19) "The irony of welcoming to the London 2012 Olympic Games an individual who is alleged to have led an organised and brutal repression of athletes because they peacefully exercised their internationally recognised right to freedom of expression and association during Bahrain's Arab Spring would be a blow to all athletes around the world, and irreconcilable with the UK commitment to human rights and claimed support to peaceful pro-democracy movements," the ECCHR said.
  • (20) A h, the irony of white people complaining about being interrupted by black people.