What's the difference between embarrass and ridicule?

Embarrass


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To hinder from freedom of thought, speech, or action by something which impedes or confuses mental action; to perplex; to discompose; to disconcert; as, laughter may embarrass an orator.
  • (v. t.) To hinder from liberty of movement; to impede; to obstruct; as, business is embarrassed; public affairs are embarrassed.
  • (v. t.) To involve in difficulties concerning money matters; to incumber with debt; to beset with urgent claims or demands; -- said of a person or his affairs; as, a man or his business is embarrassed when he can not meet his pecuniary engagements.
  • (v. t.) Embarrassment.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) If Lagarde had been placed under formal investigation in the Tapie case, it would have risked weakening her position and further embarrassing both the IMF and France by heaping more judicial worries on a key figure on the international stage.
  • (2) This has been infrequently reported to occur during general anesthesia and to cause respiratory embarrassment, representing a significant hazard.
  • (3) Already the demand for such a liturgy is growing among clergy, who are embarrassed by having to withhold the church's official support from so many of their own flock who are in civil partnerships.
  • (4) Updated at 1.57am GMT 1.55am GMT Andrew Quinn (@AndrewEQuinn) @ busfield @ lengeldavid @ gdnussports Why's it embarrassing?
  • (5) In the wake of the horrors of the second world war it was the proudest gift to a land fit for heroes, delivered at a time when the national debt made our current crisis look like an embarrassing bar tab.
  • (6) MPs have voted to abandon the controversial badger cull in England entirely, inflicting an embarrassing defeat on ministers who had already been forced to postpone the start of the killing until next summer.
  • (7) "I'm not at all embarrassed about being gay, it's just that I don't particularly want the first or only thing that people associate me with to be that I'm gay."
  • (8) Many have degrees or work in professional fields, and feel embarrassed by the fact they have become a victim of fraud.
  • (9) Earlier this fall the skier Bode Miller was one of the few American athletes to speak out against the Russian law, calling it "absolutely embarrassing".
  • (10) Plenty of people felt embarrassed, upset, outraged or betrayed by the Goncourts' record of things they had said or had said about them.
  • (11) He will insist "government should stop feeling embarrassed about the need for more patriotism in our economic policy.
  • (12) Asked whether the loss of control of the streets was embarrassing, Sir Paul replied: "Well the one thing I would say is that it must have been an awful time for the people trying to go about their daily business in those buildings.
  • (13) During interviews, married couples experiencing infertility reported emotional reactions such as sadness, depression, anger, confusion, desperation, hurt, embarrassment, and humiliation.
  • (14) Satisfaction with agency performance remained at a high level and feelings of embarrassment generally declined.
  • (15) Fail, and the nation’s rulers face embarrassment in front of a television audience of more than a billion.
  • (16) Plibersek’s spokesman said on Friday: “Who is Mr Brandis to dictate the language on the Middle East peace negotiations?” The spokesman said the intervention this week amounted to “another foreign policy embarrassment for the Abbott government, which is why [Brandis] was forced by the foreign minister and the Foreign Affairs Department to rush out a statement about his inept pronouncements.” Labor ran into its own controversy earlier this year when Bill Shorten appeared to telegraph a shift in policy around the description of settlements in a major speech to the Zionist Federation of Australia.
  • (17) He looks embarrassed – whether it's at the albums themselves or his intolerance of them, I'm not sure.
  • (18) Perhaps Silver and company would have been a bit more methodical if this embarrassing story had sprung up during the offseason or in early fall, when casual fans are wrapped up in football.
  • (19) Britain's most senior police officer was tonight forced to admit he was "embarrassed" that his officers had lost control of the capital's streets in scenes reminiscent of last year's G20 demonstration.
  • (20) Thomas Mazetti and Hannah Frey, the two Swedes behind the stunt, said they wanted to show support for Belarussian human rights activists and to embarrass the country's military, a pillar of Lukashenko's power.

Ridicule


Definition:

  • (n.) An object of sport or laughter; a laughingstock; a laughing matter.
  • (n.) Remarks concerning a subject or a person designed to excite laughter with a degree of contempt; wit of that species which provokes contemptuous laughter; disparagement by making a person an object of laughter; banter; -- a term lighter than derision.
  • (n.) Quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.
  • (v. t.) To laugh at mockingly or disparagingly; to awaken ridicule toward or respecting.
  • (a.) Ridiculous.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Historically, what made SNL’s campaign coverage so necessary was its ability to highlight the subtle absurdities of the election and exaggerate the ridiculous.
  • (2) It is ridiculous,' says Li Rui, a former secretary of Mao Zedong.
  • (3) No doubt it was intended as a bold and graphic way of presenting the Iranian nuclear threat, but much of the initial response – on Twitter, at least – was ridicule.
  • (4) "It would be ridiculous to encourage shale gas when in reality its greenhouse gas footprint could be as bad as or worse than coal.
  • (5) He says he won't respond to the latest ridiculous rumor of Republican action.
  • (6) At the 2nd stage, as the self-esteem lowered and negative attitude of other schoolchildren arose, the neurotic disorders emerged alongside with prevalent depressive reactions and fear of getting bad marks and being an object of ridicule at school.
  • (7) Once I’d checked she was OK I said, ‘Stop crying now.’ ” So it’s about managing emotions: ‘I’m going to need you to get a grip.’” “If you’ve got interesting points to make about the devaluing of serious words like bullying and depression, why make them in a way that sounds like you’re ridiculing people who are suffering?” I ask.
  • (8) Walden said the comparison with Comet was “ridiculous”.
  • (9) Well, Machado put those skills on display on Sunday, and this is an excuse to bring you his ridiculous play against the Yankees.
  • (10) Alamgir was ridiculed on social media after he told the BBC that the building may have collapsed after opposition activists enforcing a general strike "pushed at the gate and columns of the building".
  • (11) "The ANC pretence that we don't have a social crisis in this country is quite ridiculous.
  • (12) So we started asking them ridiculous questions about being single," says Lucas, "and the sheer number of misunderstandings about each other's lives felt like comedic material."
  • (13) "Rio Ferdinand's decision-making, the chances he has taken, it is ridiculous.
  • (14) It's ridiculous, because there will soon be a massive public outcry about how there's nowhere for kids to go.
  • (15) Westminster wits had taken to ridiculing the rebel movement against Gordon Brown as a "peasants' revolt", a cohort without influence.
  • (16) To create a new bank, which we understand is an option, which could be called Glyn Mills, is ridiculously back to the future.
  • (17) JD, Oxford More than three months to get a replacement debit card is ridiculous, and we agree that you have been more than patient.
  • (18) The Kiev-appointed governor, Serhiy Taruta, has dismissed this poll as ridiculous, pointing out that most of the region's 2.4 million voters won't take part.
  • (19) Liberal Democrats and Conservatives today ridiculed a request by Labour to broadcasters to focus more on policy analysis.
  • (20) Edge: Cardinals Bench Shane Robinson made a name for himself in Game Four of the NLCS with a pinch-hit home run and actually finished the NLCS with an OPS of 1.278, which is completely ridiculous and tops any of his teammates by a country mile.