What's the difference between facetious and frivolous?

Facetious


Definition:

  • (a.) Given to wit and good humor; merry; sportive; jocular; as, a facetious companion.
  • (a.) Characterized by wit and pleasantry; exciting laughter; as, a facetious story or reply.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This, in turn, prompted an apology from the director, along with a (possibly facetious) denial that he was "a Nazi".
  • (2) He is very facetious and constantly observing the crowd… His character is very spontaneous, which I am but, at the same time, when I prepare a spectacle, I leave nothing to chance, I am very methodical.
  • (3) There are side-effects associated with inhaled steroids, which are the most commonly prescribed preventative treatment, but if standard doses are used these are usually mild.” For his part, Bush admitted his language may have been “facetious”.
  • (4) I obviously missed the point if they were horrified – it was funny and a little facetious."
  • (5) The tweet was "obviously facetious" and "a parody", he added.
  • (6) It was the first time that the men's and women's game had unified and instead we are talking about someone who we paid to come in as entertainment and be facetious about something we stand vehemently against so I apologise for that.
  • (7) "He looks permanently pink and facetious, as though life is one big public-school prank," writes the former Labour MP Chris Mullin, usually quite forgiving towards Tories, in his diaries for December 2010.
  • (8) Numerous articles have appeared in the English literature, but we have been able to find only two editorials in semi-facetious vein in the South African Medical Journal over the last 20 years.
  • (9) Heard’s barrister, Paula Morreau, said: “Obviously it’s foreshadowed and they wanted to attempt to … ” before White interjected to say she was “just being facetious”.
  • (10) Wodehouse was what Orwell called "a political innocent", someone whose essential stupidity about politics - "his mild facetiousness covering an unthinking acceptance [of the world he inhabited]" - rescued him from the charge of the worst sorts of hypocrisy.
  • (11) Sometimes …) If we follow the form, naturally there'll be the ritual feast, the haggis piped in, addressed, sacrificed and served, the traditional speeches, the Address to the Lassies, the Reply, the Immortal Memory, which is supposed to skip the facetiousness and meditate on some aspect of the poet's life and his work.
  • (12) Asked about the claim by the former Liberal MP Lord Alton that he had "facetiously" said Smith's behaviour was no different to conduct at public schools, Steel said: "You say it is a facetious remark.
  • (13) The facetiousness couldn't obscure the truism: five months after Chua's piece, Time magazine published an article titled " Why do we fear a rising China ?"
  • (14) (Parody and doggerel and facetiousness are big features of Burns suppers.
  • (15) "We have a very facetious Liverpool sense of humour, laughing at things which are stupid," says Wells.
  • (16) You can ask a facetious question too – just be sure to keep it respectful.
  • (17) When I say “know-nothing,” I’m not being facetious or hyperbolic.
  • (18) Twain understood publicity so well that he was merely amused when Huck Finn was banned by libraries across the US; when it was banned in Omaha, Nebraska, for example, he sent a telegram to the local newspaper, observing facetiously: "I am tearfully afraid this noise is doing much harm.
  • (19) A facetious comparison, maybe, but shouldn’t home crowds give Scottish comics an advantage?
  • (20) He said: “If the last few weeks tell us anything: it is rarely a help to mention Hitler in support of an argument by an ex-mayor of London.” Paddy Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, said Johnson was “yet another tuppenny tin-pot imitation Churchill promising to ‘fight them on the beaches’ while weakening our defences and wrecking our economy.” Owen Smith, a Labour shadow cabinet minister, said Johnson was “a cut-rate Donald Trump.” “It’s a ridiculous and facetious comment by a man who is apt to make ridiculous and facetious comments,” Smith told LBC.

Frivolous


Definition:

  • (a.) Of little weight or importance; not worth notice; slight; as, a frivolous argument.
  • (a.) Given to trifling; marked with unbecoming levity; silly; interested especially in trifling matters.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world’s leading centre of Islamic learning, called on Muslims to “ignore the nasty frivolity” of the latest edition.
  • (2) Kleiner Perkins’ lawyer Lynne Hermle said in closing arguments that Pao’s claims were “meritless and frivolous”.
  • (3) In this Article the Author endorses countersuits as the most appropriate response to frivolous medical malpractice actions.
  • (4) A spokesman for the UK's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the treaty's provisions are designed to discourage frivolous investor-state disputes.
  • (5) The scent of grilled seafood and herbs; a refreshing salad; some tiny potatoes with summer herbs and a frivolous dessert of fruit and cream is not too much to ask.
  • (6) I’m hoping the stadium is well policed and I’m hoping we will be OK.” The hope, then, is the night will bring as dramatic a reckoning as can be served by that wonderful frivolity, a football match.
  • (7) But he said he found complaints about the system frivolous, noting that the existence of superdelegates “should not have been a surprise to either” candidate.
  • (8) Legally Blonde Beneath its fluffy and frivolous exterior, Legally Blonde has feminism coming out the proverbial.
  • (9) It would be lamentable if one consequence of the fictitious abortion requests made by the Telegraph were to add fuel to this view, implying that real women's requests for abortion are frivolous or unconsidered.
  • (10) To fuse an object of feminine adornment, of frivolity, with a bullet: that is Khaled's story, the reason behind her image's enduring power.
  • (11) Fringed by horse chestnut, sycamore and maple trees – which conservationists say could succumb in future – the garden is dark and shocking amid the frivolous yellows and pinks of most of Chelsea's other exhibits.
  • (12) In order to comprehend the controversy, it is necessary to take on account the process that has been followed for the concepts formation, by no one manner it can be taken with frivolity and less to under-value it.
  • (13) Naturally enough, the New Snobbery is not restricted to the more frivolous end of our pop culture.
  • (14) The beauty salon is a place of frivolity to where they can briefly escape and put the world to rights before returning home at the end of the day with a fresh perspective and a bouncier perm.
  • (15) On Wednesday Lively described the legal action as absurd and frivolous.
  • (16) Rory Carroll (@rorycarroll72) Zuckerberg channels Aristotle #facebook : 'A lot of the world thinks being connected is frivolous.
  • (17) Critics cited the law – a " distorted " version – and as the online debate gathered momentum, even Godwin himself appeared in the comments section of Greenwald's articles, explaining that his law sought to "discourage frivolous, but not substantive, Nazi analogies and comparisons".
  • (18) Anytime anyone wants to argue for tort reform (usually right wingers who want to protect giant corporations from the little man who is out to get them), or impose more restrictions on our freedom of movement, the case is trotted out as an example of America's addiction to frivolous law suits.
  • (19) The candidate to cosmetic surgery is not, contrary to a too common idea, a frivolous creature trying to become more beautiful.
  • (20) A Zimbabwean hunter who led the expedition that killed Cecil the lion has described charges against him as frivolous.