What's the difference between dismay and levity?

Dismay


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To disable with alarm or apprehensions; to depress the spirits or courage of; to deprive or firmness and energy through fear; to daunt; to appall; to terrify.
  • (v. i.) To render lifeless; to subdue; to disquiet.
  • (v. i.) To take dismay or fright; to be filled with dismay.
  • (v. t.) Loss of courage and firmness through fear; overwhelming and disabling terror; a sinking of the spirits; consternation.
  • (v. t.) Condition fitted to dismay; ruin.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) National newspapers and the BBC have joined forces to oppose Hague's secrecy application and on Friday expressed their dismay at the ruling.
  • (2) I scanned quickly through the available faces: there was one, all scrunched up in dismay about something or other.
  • (3) Brantly said he was first tested for malaria, but to his dismay, the results came back negative.
  • (4) Because the housing crisis goes far beyond us Focus E15 mums | Jasmin Stone Read more Annette May, 68, from Lambeth Annette May has watched with mounting dismay as the community fabric of the council estate where she has lived for 44 years steadily unravels.
  • (5) English speakers are the least optimistic about the chances of avoiding dangerous climate change Out of more than 6,000 self-selecting respondents, many expressed dismay at the slow pace of political action on climate change.
  • (6) "I feel gutted and dismayed but it's very important that we do everything we humanly can to protect vulnerable young people," Abbott told ABC radio.
  • (7) Leading figures in the social care sector have rushed to voice dismay at the feud.
  • (8) Chris Thomson, principal of Brighton, Hove and Sussex sixth form college What dismays me is the emphasis on qualifications rather than education.
  • (9) For all of this though, the visibility of people living on the streets can be shocking and it makes Perlman’s dismay wholly understandable.
  • (10) The Spanish family, who abandoned a private equity-backed takeover of National Express last month , was dismayed when National Express subsequently rejected a bid approach from Stagecoach, a rival public transport group.
  • (11) They’re dismayed because they’re seeing conservatives uniting behind our campaign.
  • (12) It was emphatically not, as the Tory right and the dismayed left have already concluded, evidence that Britain remains a fundamentally conservative country.
  • (13) It said it was "heavily dismayed to learn of the behaviour of Lee Trading with regard to the timely payment of its workers".
  • (14) I am dismayed at the terrible experience that Wafula Strike had … She is right to bring this matter to the department’s attention and I applaud her bravery for speaking openly about her experience.” The Paralympian condemned Stapleton’s experience: “It’s a real shame that what happened to me is still happening to other people.
  • (15) It dismays Kirk that Warp moved to London but he's still in touch with them and their releases, effusing particularly about DJ Mujava and "Township Funk".
  • (16) Suu Kyi's relationship with the generals has reportedly turned sour again In her tireless efforts to secure cooperation from the military, Suu Kyi has repeatedly expressed her appreciation, respect and “genuine” affection for the Tatmadaw (feudal military), which her father founded under Japan’s fascist patronage in December 1942, much to the dismay of many minorities who have borne the brunt of the organisation’s ruthless policies.
  • (17) Mark Malloch Brown, Britain's foreign office minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, expressed "dismay" over the law's impact on women's rights.
  • (18) We’ve maintained that commitment, but we have to make sure that we’re spending that money as effectively as possible.” The announcement will dismay some rightwing Conservatives, who fear it could push some wavering voters to Ukip.
  • (19) Hart respects the Argentinian but was dismayed to be sidelined for him.
  • (20) To the dismay of the Fostering Network and foster carers, however, there have been no moves to roll out the scheme nationally so that more of the 6,000 young people who leave care annually can opt to stay on in a supportive family environment.

Levity


Definition:

  • (n.) Lack of steadiness or constancy; disposition to change; fickleness; volatility.
  • (n.) The quality of weighing less than something else of equal bulk; relative lightness, especially as shown by rising through, or floating upon, a contiguous substance; buoyancy; -- opposed to gravity.
  • (n.) Lack of gravity and earnestness in deportment or character; trifling gayety; frivolity; sportiveness; vanity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Penetration will only occur once you have established a sense of levity, safety and trust between the both of you, plus a high level of non-penetrative eroticism.
  • (2) He’s similar in that sense to his icon Dizzee, who was always happy to balance his weightier stuff with moments of levity.
  • (3) Niemeyer’s buildings are characterised by their levity, playfulness, and curves, which are all antithetical to brutalism.
  • (4) Any such levity, however, is leavened by the tacit acknowledgment that existence is futile, and we are all just bags of flesh and bones whiling away the days before death and putrefaction sets in.
  • (5) There was more levity in a panel for the unlikely hit political drama Borgen about the intricacies of Danish coalition government, which brought together actors Sidse Babett Knudsen and Pilou Asbaek - who played prime minister Birgitte Nyborg and her spin doctor Kasper Juul.
  • (6) In Ferguson last summer, there wasn’t much levity in the days after Mike Brown was killed, either.
  • (7) In this spirit, Formation compels its viewers to acknowledge the beautiful complexity of history, culture and customs, with levity and passion.
  • (8) Perhaps he was a children's entertainer whom Ivan the Terrible enlisted in a rare moment of levity.
  • (9) They wanted someone associated with April who could inject a little humour and levity, not in a farcical way but in a real way.
  • (10) With One Love, Grande rose to the occasion with heart, strength and moments of out-of-body levity that can only come from a big pop show.
  • (11) H ow paranoid were you before you made this movie and how paranoid are you now?” That question was perhaps the only moment of levity during a conversation with documentarian Alex Gibney after the credits rolled on Zero Days, a terrifying account of the cyberwar that is already raging on thumb drives and mainframes from Washington to Tel Aviv to Isfahan Province in Iran and anywhere else that can connect to the internet.
  • (12) Klopp clearly enjoyed himself on the touchline in the closing stages and he brought a degree of levity into his post-match press conference, even offering up a suggestion for the top of journalists’ pieces.
  • (13) In a rare moment of levity during Hunt's testimony, the culture secretary was asked about an evening reception and dinner with James Murdoch where he was said to have hidden behind a tree to avoid being seen by the Wall Street Journal's Iain Martin.
  • (14) This was significant and, at the time, outrageous – in 1969, it must have seemed that seriousness had won out for good, with levity confined to novelty singles and bubblegum.
  • (15) The archaic levity tells you much about the debate, which, apart from the sponsor's opening remarks and contribution from another women in the chamber – the film-maker Baroness (Beeban) Kidron – did not even come close to articulating the change that has occurred since Tim Berners-Lee delivered his paper on a distributed hypertext system to his boss at CERN in March 1989.
  • (16) "I didn't want to have sex," says Geimer with brittle levity.
  • (17) There are moments of levity: when Bill Lincoln is giving evidence about his alibi (buying fish at Billingsgate market on Good Friday), it transpires that he is known by friends as “Billy the Fish”; James Creighton, the mate he meets when he has his regular Turkish bath, and who gives evidence on his behalf, is known as “Jimmy Two Baths”.
  • (18) They have even invented an alter ego band named The Reflektors, in which they perform wearing giant papier-mache heads of themselves, to add to the levity, and perhaps also to relieve the weight of what it means to be one of the world's biggest bands.
  • (19) He has been chairing the weekly political debates since 1994, often injecting the proceedings with some much-needed levity, and has become synonymous with the programme, ignoring constant speculation about when he might retire, and who might replace him.
  • (20) I said I liked it for its conceptual cheekiness – there can be no politics without quixotic energy and levity.