What's the difference between earnest and unctuous?

Earnest


Definition:

  • (n.) Seriousness; reality; fixed determination; eagerness; intentness.
  • (a.) Ardent in the pursuit of an object; eager to obtain or do; zealous with sincerity; with hearty endeavor; heartfelt; fervent; hearty; -- used in a good sense; as, earnest prayers.
  • (a.) Intent; fixed closely; as, earnest attention.
  • (a.) Serious; important.
  • (v. t.) To use in earnest.
  • (n.) Something given, or a part paid beforehand, as a pledge; pledge; handsel; a token of what is to come.
  • (n.) Something of value given by the buyer to the seller, by way of token or pledge, to bind the bargain and prove the sale.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "For a better world, not only for the Iranian people but for the next generation across the globe, I earnestly hope that President Rouhani will receive a warm welcome and meaningful responses during his visit to the UN."
  • (2) Tragedy was averted because there was a little delay as the prayers did not commence in earnest and the bomb strapped to the body of the girl went off and killed her,” he added.
  • (3) However, despite repeated questions from reporters, Earnest did not rule out Obama approving fast-track without TAA if that combination somehow made it through procedural hurdles in the Senate.
  • (4) There's something very earnest about the build up to this MLS Cup final, as if the battle on the field between Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake starts with a competition to see which team can "respect" the other one more fiercely.
  • (5) But at the same time, there is an earnest side to it all.
  • (6) Earnest confirmed some departures were likely as “members of the president’s staff to use the opportunity of the election” to leave the White House and “sort of engage in a transition”, but he rejected suggestions of a cull of big names.
  • (7) This begins in earnest after the 6-week assessment, which can provide information on which to base an exercise prescription.
  • (8) While Obama said in a written statement that he was “deeply disturbed” by the footage of Laquan’s shooting, spokesman Josh Earnest was reluctant to criticize Emanuel’s handling of the situation when pressed by reporters last week on whether the mayor should resign.
  • (9) Dean Garfield, president and CEO of tech business lobbying group and thinktank the Information Technology Industry Council, opened his address to the US-China Internet Industry Forum (where Xi was in attendance) in Silicon Valley on Wednesday thus: “We live in a world where the list of societal challenges is long, and getting longer, but where the collective collaboration between the United States and China is just, say, suboptimal.” Earnest said further that talk from Chinese officials on this subject was cheap.
  • (10) We believe that an open society with the highest possible degree of autonomy, and governed by the rule of law, is essential for Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity,” spokesman Josh Earnest said.
  • (11) Lobbying for the job of BBC director general of the BBC is expected to begin in earnest following MediaGuardian's revelation late on Thursday that Thompson was planning to step down at the end of the year or the beginning of 2013.
  • (12) International monitoring of the ICIDH has begun in earnest.
  • (13) Yet, there is no doubt that All Star has been targeted for its specific qualities – the main ones being its feelgood nostalgia value and a laughably exuberant pop-punk style that feels totally earnest.
  • (14) Earnest insisted that a review into the delivery of aid to Egypt had not yet concluded, and said it was "inaccurate to suggest that we've cut off aid to Egypt".
  • (15) I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of an endorsement [by Obama] in the Democratic primary,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in late August.
  • (16) Earnest, outlining Obama’s longstanding thinking about launching new air strikes in Iraq, noted that protecting US personnel was a core concern for the US president.
  • (17) I was asked to do it, but I thought it would be difficult to stay out of the fight on this, given that I really …” The Guardian view on Labour and Europe: voice of the nation time | Editorial Read more Johnson interrupts himself whenever he feels in danger of saying something that might sound too earnest.
  • (18) To the sound of an acoustic guitar and an earnest vocal, it opens with footage of a lonely Ed Miliband, wandering the dark, deserted streets of Westminster.
  • (19) Saying that he did not know more about the data destruction beyond what has been reported, Earnest said it was "hard for me to evaluate the propriety of that."
  • (20) White House press secretary Josh Earnest framed Clancy’s appointment as “in some ways the best of both worlds”.

Unctuous


Definition:

  • (a.) Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; fatty; oily; greasy.
  • (a.) Having a smooth, greasy feel, as certain minerals.
  • (a.) Bland; suave; also, tender; fervid; as, an unctuous speech; sometimes, insincerely suave or fervid.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Early opportunities to indulge his skill for making unctuousness compelling came in the roles of a school snitch in the Al Pacino vehicle Scent of a Woman (1992), for which Hoffman auditioned five times.
  • (2) Trump, when asked last December which president he most admires, did not pay the usual unctuous tribute to Lincoln, Kennedy or Reagan, but said that his role model was James Marshall.
  • (3) Already irritated with Speaker John Bercow for being long-winded, unctuous and perceptibly anti-Conservative in the House of Commons, the idea that his Labour-supporting wife would go on the programme's Channel 5 reincarnation had been a red rag to the proverbial.
  • (4) Disease, birth-defects and chronic illnesses are all part and parcel of an unregulated industry that operates outside the range of global media but with the full complicity of the Nigerian government that wants nothing whatsoever to upset its unctuous cash-cow.
  • (5) That your jaw is wired open, and you're being spoonfed thick, unctuous vomit from a large tureen forged from glimmering, gilded rubbish.
  • (6) These things are driven by rolling, unctuous television telling people a great event is unfolding, focusing on the few hysterics in tears and not the many who come to feel their pain.
  • (7) Just as he had (arguably) revolutionised TV satire, making it threatening to, rather than complicit with, the establishment, here he was changing the nature of the TV interview: unctuous deference was out; aggression and scepticism were in.
  • (8) But there's no doubt who left amid the biggest slurp of unctuous adulation.
  • (9) Listening to the voluptuous precision with which he articulated his dream of feasting "on the swelling, unctuous paps of a fat, pregnant sow", it was good to be reminded of the matchless clarity of the Richardson voice which remains one of the great treasures of my theatre-going lifetime.
  • (10) Despite the ongoing threat to national sanity posed by The X Factor, such pop is no longer the embarrassing province of the unctuous boyband, or pitched strictly at the tweenage market.
  • (11) This dish is the opposite of all those things: sinfully rich, full of butter, served with unctuous roasting juices on top.
  • (12) So, the trick is either to catch the meat before the muscle cells burst, or leave it in the oven for ages until everything reaches an unctuous softness.
  • (13) History’s first overtly gay Disney character, it turns out, is LeFou, unctuous manservant to preening, hyper-macho villain Gaston – an underling who, in Condon’s words, “on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston”.
  • (14) This is said often, even in this unctuous week - and yet still it does not permeate.
  • (15) Pointlessly suffixed to a retweet to indicate earnest accord, "<THIS" is really nothing but an unctuous tagnut.
  • (16) The pintxos are chalked up on a board and cooked to order: an unctuous risotto of mushrooms and idiazabal (a Basque cheese), garlic soup with pig's ear, braised veal cheeks in wine or a bacalao (salt cod) taco.
  • (17) But the haphazard canals criss-crossing it were still full of thick, unctuous water with a rainbow film on top, and white paint on the birch tree trunks could not cover the black trace of oil, Greenpeace says.
  • (18) We may be sure that the MP for Clacton has never trimmed his views for political advantage; nor has he begun a question with the unctuous phrase “May I congratulate my right honourable friend…” I know from experience that the role of an independent MP comes with its disadvantages.
  • (19) The always-packed tapas bar Casa Revuelta dishes up the city’s pre-eminent pinchos de bacalao – piping-hot, fist-size nuggets of flaky, unctuous cod (€2.80).
  • (20) Despite unctuous protests about good taste, there is an audience for this fight, a considerably bigger one than there had been before they came to blows in front of the cameras and some distance from a referee.