What's the difference between exasperation and petulance?

Exasperation


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of exasperating or the state of being exasperated; irritation; keen or bitter anger.
  • (n.) Increase of violence or malignity; aggravation; exacerbation.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Given Australia’s number one position as the worst carbon emitter per capita among major western nations it seems hardly surprising that islanders from Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and other small island developing states have been turning to Australia with growing exasperation demanding the country demonstrate an appropriate response and responsibility.
  • (2) Nick Clegg sounded exasperated, but it is Lib Dem convention to let members make the party’s policies by democratic vote.
  • (3) It's also, clearly, the beginning of an annual TV tradition, a comforting pool of lamplit nostalgia amid all the sequins and celebrity hoo-hah, with Geoffrey Palmer flapping his jowls exasperatedly as he realises he's packed the wrong rectal tube.
  • (4) Had they bothered to inquire of a veteran from the ranks, they might have heard how exasperating it is to see the dainty long-range patriots of Labour thrashing it out with the staunch gutter jingoists of the Conservative party – and barely a non-commissioned vet among them.
  • (5) Mags, from South Thanet, expressed her exasperation: “They’re all out for themselves.
  • (6) Showing exasperation at slow progress in kick-starting the €440bn European Financial Stability Facility, Draghi said EU leaders had decided more than a year and a half ago to launch the fund, then to make the full guarantee volume available and, four weeks ago, to leverage its resources.
  • (7) "Some even call me her pet," he sighs, raising his eyebrows in exasperation.
  • (8) The UK defence secretary, John Hutton, has expressed exasperation at European allies' lack of support .
  • (9) They also share – and here is the thing – an exasperation with the Spanish way of work.
  • (10) Barack Obama , at a press conference to wind up the summit, made no attempt to conceal his exasperation, issuing a pointed warning to Pakistan it was in its wider interest to work with the US to avoid being "consumed" by extremists.
  • (11) Even after three decades in the sector he sounds genuinely exasperated that life expectancy for people with some serious mental illnesses can be as much as 20 years lower than the average.
  • (12) There’s no evidence she’s ever been physically harmed by me on any occasion.” The officer was clearly growing exasperated with Anderson.
  • (13) And, yes, they exasperate their numerous ideologically charged colleagues, who have a more sceptical approach to the evidence.
  • (14) Foreign Office colleagues remember Sir Andrew as genuinely exasperated that Mr Masari could be allowed to stay and damage relations with Saudi Arabia.
  • (15) You can’t say that,” he says with impatient exasperation, when I suggest the Coalition , with its commanding majority in the lower house and its pretty well-known opposition to carbon pricing, is highly unlikely to ever back an ETS put forward by PUP even if the price is set at zero until certain that Australia’s trading partners have acted.
  • (16) "Evan can get exasperated if the interviewee doesn't see the world in the very clear way that Evan sees it in his head.
  • (17) Photograph: Christopher Thomond As Wilson – a 46-year-old American from Salt Lake City who stays remarkably calm and cheerful despite his responsibilities – prepares to receive his early morning briefing from the night team, colleagues tell him in exasperation about a young woman who turned up at 3.25am complaining of pain coming from under the false nail on her left thumb.
  • (18) In those times when he, or any other politician, feels a sense of exasperation about limited progress in this area, I would ask him to be inspired by those educators and those Aboriginal people who have never walked away from such challenges.
  • (19) As about 200,000 pro-European protesters staged demonstrations in central Kiev for the fourth weekend in a row, the European commission in Brussels vented its exasperation with President Viktor Yanukovych and announced it was suspending the talks despite renewed negotiations last Thursday.
  • (20) Rumin alternates between fury and exasperation when the subject of the ban comes up.

Petulance


Definition:

  • (n.) Alt. of Petulancy

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "This speaks volumes of Hamilton and his petulant behaviour.
  • (2) One of the stories that took hold about the Klebolds after the shooting was that they were rich, and that Dylan’s violent behaviour was an extreme version of a spoilt child’s petulance.
  • (3) If we’re going to do this groupthink [a blanket ban] I think it would smack of petulance.” Jones added: “I stand by what Tony Abbott said: it [Q&A] is a lefty lynch mob.
  • (4) For a man who can clearly dance, he tends to deliver with a petulant shrug rather than an enthusiastic bang.
  • (5) One expects tension between a government and charities that tell inconvenient truths, but this has become a notoriously fearful, petulant, and intolerant administration.
  • (6) Toby Young called her a "petulant prima donna" in the Telegraph, while Observer critic Robert McCrum wrote that, as "an ebullient and pioneering feminist publisher from the 1970s [it's] hardly a surprise that she should find herself unresponsive to Roth's lifelong subject: the adventures of the ordinary sexual [American] man".
  • (7) His latest show of petulance drew boos from a crowd largely sympathetic to his antics up to that point.
  • (8) Stuart Lancaster and his coaching team sat looking down at the floor when Owen Farrell received a yellow card 10 minutes from the end for an act of petulance that in part explained why England have failed to live up to the high standard set in the pool of death, perhaps in the hope of a sink hole opening up and taking them away.
  • (9) Croatia have won 4-0 due in no small part to the idiocy of Alexandre Song, who was sent off in the first off for a preposterous show of petulance.
  • (10) Goaded, taunted and tormented by the prosecution, Pistorius was perhaps his own worst enemy during cross-examination, suffering surprising memory lapses and appearing evasive, agitated, petulant and self-contradictory.
  • (11) With great power comes great responsibility, so Facebook , and other large technology companies like Google, Amazon and Netflix need to be watched, critiqued and regulated if necessary, just like any other corporation or petulant adolescent.
  • (12) A petulant Henry cursed wretched foreigners and launched his own Brexit by leaving the church of Rome.
  • (13) But that is not possible for as long as Assad remains in power without any timetable for his departure, and for as long as his security forces murder, torture, gas and bomb his own people.” Nigel Dodds, the deputy DUP leader, indicated he was likely to back airstrikes and issued a vicious assault on the Labour leadership, saying: “It’s the petulant, putrid response of the irresponsible revolutionary bedsit they barely seem to have clambered out of.
  • (14) Chris Bryant, the former minister for Europe and chairman of the parliamentary all-party Russia group, said in a statement: "Having visited the trial and seen for myself the farcical way in which it was being conducted, with ludicrous trumped up charges and a petulant martinet of a prosecutor, it is entirely predictable that [Khodorkovsky] has been found guilty."
  • (15) Pakistan authorities counter claim that, emboldened by countrywide instability and foreign support, Baloch feudal leaders have petulantly demanded ever more royalties.
  • (16) They see the protesters as petulant malcontents and repeat Trump’s accusation that some of them are surely getting paid to demonstrate.
  • (17) I give all my customers five stars except Nicholas, whom I give one star out of petulance at his laziness.
  • (18) She was vulnerable, touching, kindly, loving, wholly lacking in malice, occasionally petulant in a good cause, and demonstrated her lack of talent for guile whenever she entered upon some well-intentioned intrigue.
  • (19) Obama has responded with emotions rarely seen during his stoical administration: anger at “hysterical” politicians back home, sorrow at the thought of sending US troops into another Middle East war he fears would be unwinnable, and petulance in the face of those who question his resolve.
  • (20) He not only represents everything a DJ shouldn't be – obnoxious, petulant, unfunny, and so over-fond of his own horrible, squeaky voice that entire half-hours can pass without any music being played – he represents everything that's wrong with this country.