What's the difference between doubt and scoff?

Doubt


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To waver in opinion or judgment; to be in uncertainty as to belief respecting anything; to hesitate in belief; to be undecided as to the truth of the negative or the affirmative proposition; to b e undetermined.
  • (v. i.) To suspect; to fear; to be apprehensive.
  • (v. t.) To question or hold questionable; to withhold assent to; to hesitate to believe, or to be inclined not to believe; to withhold confidence from; to distrust; as, I have heard the story, but I doubt the truth of it.
  • (v. t.) To suspect; to fear; to be apprehensive of.
  • (v. t.) To fill with fear; to affright.
  • (v. i.) A fluctuation of mind arising from defect of knowledge or evidence; uncertainty of judgment or mind; unsettled state of opinion concerning the reality of an event, or the truth of an assertion, etc.; hesitation.
  • (v. i.) Uncertainty of condition.
  • (v. i.) Suspicion; fear; apprehension; dread.
  • (v. i.) Difficulty expressed or urged for solution; point unsettled; objection.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In a further study 1082 patients with a negative or doubtful result of the physical examination were investigated using ultrasound.
  • (2) p-Chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) also reduced the response to levodopa but the usefulness of PCPA as an inhibitor of 5HT synthesis in these experiments in doubtful since it also inhibited the hypoglycaemic effects of 5HTP and i.c.v.
  • (3) There is no doubt that new techniques in molecular biology will continue to evolve so that the goal of gene therapy for many disorders may be possible in the future.
  • (4) I never had any doubt that the vast majority of people engaged in "business" are not the exploiters but the exploited.
  • (5) There is no doubt that psychological, reactive and environmental factors do play a certain role too.
  • (6) Paul Doyle Kick-off Sunday midday Venue St Mary’s Stadium Last season Southampton 2 Leicester City 2 Live Sky Sports 1 Referee Michael Oliver This season G 18, Y 60, R 1, 3.44 cards per game Odds H 5-6 A 4-1 D 5-2 Southampton Subs from Taylor, Martina, Stephens, Davis, Rodriguez, Sims, Ward-Prowse Doubtful Bertrand, Davis, Van Dijk (all match fitness) Injured Boufal (knee, Jan), Hesketh (ankle, Feb), Targett (hamstring, Feb), Austin (shoulder, Mar), Pied (knee, Jun), Gardos (knee, unknown) Suspended None Form DWLLLL Discipline Y37 R2 Leading scorer Austin 6 Leicester City Subs from Zieler, Hamer, Wasilewski, Gray, Fuchs, James, Okazaki, Hernández, Kapustka, King Doubtful None Injured None Suspended None Unavailable Amartey, Mahrez, Slimani (Africa Cup of Nations) Form LDLWDL Discipline Y44 R1 Leading scorers Slimani, Vardy 5
  • (7) Without that, and without undertaking big changes, the service's future may fall into doubt, he says.
  • (8) This is welcome news but it needs to be borne in mind that the manufacturing sector is still far from racing ahead and serious doubts remain about the strength of demand for manufactured goods over the medium term, particularly once stimulative measures start being withdrawn.
  • (9) Doubts about Hinkley Point have deepened after a detailed report by HSBC’s energy analysts described eight key challenges to the project, which will be built by the state-backed French firm EDF and be part-financed by investment from China .
  • (10) The mean age of gravidae with doubtful smears is about 6 years beyond the mean age of gravidae with positive smears.
  • (11) I have no doubt that both the Conservative and Labour parties will maintain throughout the course of the election campaign their determination to build four submarines and 160 warheads,” he says.
  • (12) There is little doubt that when it opens next Thursday, One New Change will be jam-packed with City workers and tourists.
  • (13) We feel that they, as presented, leave serious doubt as to the validity of their conclusions.
  • (14) Contact guidance has been suggested to direct NC cells ventrally in the trunk, but this has been subject to doubt (see Newgreen and Erickson, 1986, Int.
  • (15) Although “there are serious questions and doubts in our minds over the government’s seven-day working agenda … it isn’t clear what this strike action is for and what the position of the BMA is now,” he told the Guardian.
  • (16) There is no doubt that people were killed quite deliberately by police officers.
  • (17) Other critics, even if they were unsure of the lasting relevance, were willing to give Tillmans the benefit of the doubt.
  • (18) We interpret this exaggerated positive attitude as an attempt to overcome inner fears, doubts and ambivalences.
  • (19) Another forward, Manchester United's Danny Welbeck, is a major doubt for the game with a knee complaint.
  • (20) Coghlin said: “There is no doubt that, as a consequence of the personalities involved, these proceedings attracted a very considerable degree of media publicity both before and, to a certain degree, subsequent to the trial.

Scoff


Definition:

  • (n.) Derision; ridicule; mockery; derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.
  • (n.) An object of scorn, mockery, or derision.
  • (n.) To show insolent ridicule or mockery; to manifest contempt by derisive acts or language; -- often with at.
  • (v. t.) To treat or address with derision; to assail scornfully; to mock at.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Lunchtime read: How banter conquered Britain Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Guardian Design Team There are hundreds of banter groups on Facebook, you can eat at restaurants called Scoff & Banter or buy an “Archbishop of Banterbury” T-shirt for £9.99.
  • (2) Mere hypothecation, scoff politicians, rejecting the idea again in parliament yesterday.
  • (3) And does Ofsted really expect to get away with using the “kids today!” scoff as an actual, presentable-to-parliament reason for these embarrassingly high youth unemployment rates?
  • (4) Russia continues to scoff at evidence that Syrian government forces carried out the chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhun earlier this week.
  • (5) Brooks worries that part of the problem with society is that we have become conditioned to scoff the marshmallow.
  • (6) Penny Wong scoffs at 'entertaining but erratic' Barnaby Joyce leading National party Read more The governor of the Reserve Bank Glenn Stevens said at the time there were “few things less likely than Australia defaulting on its sovereign debt”.
  • (7) Rolf scoffs at those who say the Fight for 15, which the SEIU has underwritten, has failed at its goals of unionizing McDonald’s and getting it to adopt a $15 minimum.
  • (8) Clegg will insist that the Lib Dems have already replaced Labour as the country's leading "progressive" party and scoff at Tory pretensions to the same label.
  • (9) Heavily bandaged and unable to walk, she scoffs at the US ambassador's talk of a thorough investigation of the Ahuas raid.
  • (10) Rodgers scoffs at papers from US military colleges branding them a strategic threat and a Honduran government claim linking maras to al-Qaida.
  • (11) Although, of course, the easiest thing would simply to be British about all this and scoff.
  • (12) The Castrol Index, for the mercifully uninitiated, is of course the nonsense ranking scheme cooked up by some bods at Fifa's Castle Greyskull to give people even more of a reason to scoff at them, which is always grand.
  • (13) "You can't scoff at sewing and it's practicality," asserts Dave Montez.
  • (14) Sceptics may scoff, and results of an attempt to extract DNA and match it to descendants are not due until Christmas, but Thompson is adamant that the bones now resting in a safe in the archaeology and ancient history department of Leicester University are those of the last Plantagenet, Richard III , who rode out of Leicester on the morning of 22 August 1485 a king, and came back a naked corpse slung over the pommel of a horse.
  • (15) Presented with official estimates of how many immigrants are in the country illegally, a common response is to scoff.
  • (16) Morrissey scoffs at Vanessa Redgrave's celebrity humanitarianism in his autobiography.
  • (17) I used to scoff at the simplicity of equating onscreen violence with its real-world equivalent.
  • (18) Liberals may scoff, pundits may shake their heads, but Palin herself clearly still wants some form of political life.
  • (19) His opposite number scoffs at the forecasts and promises his tweaks would be far superior.
  • (20) Some might call such a day 'The Millennium', but America shies away from the socialist solution, while the rest of the world scoffs but votes with its wallets to adopt our culture.