What's the difference between decency and scandal?

Decency


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality or state of being decent, suitable, or becoming, in words or behavior; propriety of form in social intercourse, in actions, or in discourse; proper formality; becoming ceremony; seemliness; hence, freedom from obscenity or indecorum; modesty.
  • (n.) That which is proper or becoming.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This is not some sophisticated, Westminstery battle, but a life-and-death, misery-or-decency choice about the very basics of life for hundreds of thousands of older British people.
  • (2) "Throughout America, the Queen stands for decency and civility."
  • (3) Yes, Goldsmith is to be held in contempt: a man of decency would have rejected this gutter strategy.
  • (4) "Sir Alex Ferguson had the decency to phone me to let me know that he was going in another direction after I applied for the reserve team post at Manchester United in 2003.
  • (5) As Obama put it in her speech today, this isn’t about politics, “it’s about basic human decency”.
  • (6) Having been born in Belgium he didn't start from a belief in the inferiority of other countries, but he loved Britain for the security it offered his family and the gentle decency of our nation."
  • (7) She is talking to Dizzee Rascal, who at least has the decency to goon around for the camera.
  • (8) If Whittingdale had any honour, any mercy, and any basic human decency, he would murder David Attenborough himself today, in his bed, to spare him any further suffering.
  • (9) But we can all probably do without Fifa's "fair play in marketing" lectures, which clothe commercial ruthlessness in the language of sporting decency, apparently oblivious to the impression given by wallpapering every stadium with signs that push BP or declare "We proudly accept only Visa".
  • (10) Neither the Congress nor evaluators have clear concepts of what constitutes a life of decency and dignity for the chronically dependent.
  • (11) At 6ft 3in tall, the lanky Peck was a pillar of moral rectitude standing up for decency and tolerance.
  • (12) Austerity as we know it – where basic human decency is sacrificed to solutions that purport to be cheaper but turn out not to be – actually started before the austerity narrative.
  • (13) Decency is one of those lines.” Erickson also told reporters: “I don’t want to put words in [Trump’s] mouth and I hate using the label misogynist because I think its used too much but he’s suggesting a woman as a lady asked him a question and did so because it was her time of the month.
  • (14) I hope David Cameron has the decency to invite you around for coffee or lunch as Tony Blair and David Blunkett did once I was out.
  • (15) A former director general of the prison service, Martin Narey, who now has a contract with the firm as a consultant on decency in G4S prisons, says he was once vehemently opposed to private-sector involvement in the prison service before he was appointed in 1998.
  • (16) Few would challenge the Camerons' fundamental decency.
  • (17) Looking first at the smaller politics, the attack by Fallon on Miliband’s decency and fitness for No 10 was a risky play by the Tories.
  • (18) 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.
  • (19) But the depth of this tragedy also drew out the decency and determination of our nation.
  • (20) Fry wrote: "I gather a repulsive nobody writing in a paper no one of any decency would be seen dead with has written something loathsome and inhumane.

Scandal


Definition:

  • (n.) Offense caused or experienced; reproach or reprobation called forth by what is regarded as wrong, criminal, heinous, or flagrant: opprobrium or disgrace.
  • (n.) Reproachful aspersion; opprobrious censure; defamatory talk, uttered heedlessly or maliciously.
  • (n.) Anything alleged in pleading which is impertinent, and is reproachful to any person, or which derogates from the dignity of the court, or is contrary to good manners.
  • (v. t.) To treat opprobriously; to defame; to asperse; to traduce; to slander.
  • (v. t.) To scandalize; to offend.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) An official inquiry into the Rotherham abuse scandal blamed failings by Rotherham council and South Yorkshire police.
  • (2) Other recommendations for immediate action included a review of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council for doctors, with possible changes to their structures; the possible transfer of powers to launch criminal prosecutions for care scandals from the Health and Safety Executive to the Care Quality Council; and a new inspection regime, which would focus more closely on how clean, safe and caring hospitals were.
  • (3) Stringer, a Vietnam war veteran who was knighted in 1999, is already inside the corporation, if only for a few months, after he was appointed as one of its non-executive directors to toughen up the BBC's governance following a string of scandals, from the Jimmy Savile abuse to multimillion-pound executive payoffs.
  • (4) The District became a byword for crime and drug abuse, while its “mayor for life” lived high on the hog and lurched cheerfully from one scandal to the next.
  • (5) Robert Francis QC's official report in February on the Mid Staffordshire care scandal, in which an estimated 400 to 1,200 patients died unnecessarily at Stafford hospital between 2005 and 2008, called for the NHS to make "zero harm" its objective.
  • (6) Why would you want to boost him?” The president is accused of trying to distract from domestic problems – corruption scandals and an exposé showing he plagiarised parts of his law-school thesis – by attending to Trump.
  • (7) No evidence has been produced that she was personally involved in the bribery, but some are wondering whether the Petrobras scandal might turn into a Watergate for her.
  • (8) The publicity surrounding the Rotherham child exploitation scandal, which triggered the resignation of Shaun Wright, the previous PCC, did not translate into a high turnout, with only 14.65% of the electorate casting a vote.
  • (9) But when the city's Gallery of Modern Art opened in 1998, it totally – and scandalously – ignored the new wave of Glasgow artists.
  • (10) Especially once the Libor scandal gave a clear signal of how markets could be manipulated.
  • (11) Corruption scandals have left few among the Spanish ruling class untainted, engulfing politicians on the left and right of the spectrum, as well as businesses, unions, football clubs and even the king’s sister .
  • (12) Sometimes it can seem as if the history of the City is the history of its crises and disasters, from the banking crisis of 1825 (which saw undercapitalised banks collapse – perhaps the closest historic parallel to the contemporary credit crunch), through the Spanish panic of 1835, the railway bust of 1837, the crash of Overend Gurney, the Kaffir boom, the Westralian boom, the Marconi scandal, and so on and on – a theme with endless variations.
  • (13) Eleven US soldiers have been convicted in the Abu Ghraib scandal.
  • (14) When last week’s scandal broke, Tesco chair Sir Richard Broadbent airily opined: “Things are always unnoticed until they are noticed.” He forgot to mention that that goes double if people are paid to turn a blind eye.
  • (15) Trawling through the private telephone conversations of royals, politicians and celebrities in the hope of picking up scandalous gossip is not seen as legitimate news gathering and the techniques of entrapment which led to the recent Pakistani match-fixing scandal , although grudgingly admired in this particular case, are derided as manufacturing the news.
  • (16) The Volkswagen Group has announced €1bn (£750m) of spending cuts at its core VW division to help pay for a product overhaul following the emissions testing scandal that has rocked Europe’s biggest carmaker.
  • (17) The Department for International Development said all direct support to the Ugandan government had been cut in November after a corruption scandal, but a spokesman said the £97.9m in this year's budget would not be withheld.
  • (18) The promotion would come as News Corp continues to face legal investigations into the phone-hacking scandal on both sides of the Atlantic.
  • (19) An IOC member for 23 years he has assidiously collected the leadership of the acronym heavy subsets of that organisation, which may be less riddled with corruption than it was before the Salt Lake City scandal but has swapped outlandish bribes for mountains of bureaucracy.
  • (20) At the hearing, committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy, praised the secret service as "wise, very professional men and women", and called it shocking that so many of the agency's employees were involved in the scandal.