What's the difference between flimsy and insubstantial?

Flimsy


Definition:

  • (superl.) Weak; feeble; limp; slight; vain; without strength or solidity; of loose and unsubstantial structure; without reason or plausibility; as, a flimsy argument, excuse, objection.
  • (n.) Thin or transfer paper.
  • (n.) A bank note.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The airline had secured its injunction on the admittedly flimsy grounds that Unite broke strict rules over reporting ballot results.
  • (2) Verdict Black Hawk Down tiptoes carefully around the facts when it deals with US troops, but its interpretation of history is flimsy, one-sided, and politically questionable.
  • (3) The system is flimsy, not fit for purpose in an emergency.
  • (4) Samsung has announced a new Galaxy Alpha smartphone with a metal body, signalling that it has recognised consumer disgruntlement with flimsy plastic phone parts.
  • (5) Around 200,000 still live in flimsy shelters on rubbish-strewn wastelands.
  • (6) He gives vivid accounts of the utter chaos of Gallipoli where he shelters under flimsy awnings in shallow holes in the ground, exhausted and starving.
  • (7) Mansour rejected the charges, calling them “a flimsy attempt at character assassination”.
  • (8) Indeed, as well as the rather flimsy link between game and film, there's also a distinct absence of the game's presence in any of the film's marketing.
  • (9) If the British government wants the best of its teachers to stick around and deliver this on home soil, it needs to provide good reasons for them to do so – and they need to be better reasons than flimsy, inconsequential pre-election workload surveys and 1% pay increases .
  • (10) Ironically it was Dylan, whom she met in New York years later, who introduced her to the peace movement which she took to instantly; it gave a focus for her dissent and brought fire to her otherwise flimsy folk songs.
  • (11) A spokesman for North Korea’s Association for Human Rights Studies said on Wednesday that Shin’s admissions “self-exposed” the flimsy foundations of efforts to censure Pyongyang for its rights record.
  • (12) Their criticism of Ms Spielman for lacking “passion” is a flimsy one based on the style of her response to questions, not the substance of her answers.
  • (13) His clothes were taken away and he was returned to the freezing cell wearing only a flimsy hospital gown.
  • (14) Yes, the passing was loose, the midfield was short of ingenuity and there were only fleeting glimpses of a team of genuine force but that should hardly constitute a surprise given the flimsy preparations.
  • (15) Everything underlying the conviction struck him as flimsy.
  • (16) He added: "Businessmen did not get where they are today by accepting such flimsy advice."
  • (17) It is a sad, sad state of affairs that a person can be killed for such a flimsy reason."
  • (18) Despite the fact that the science is often poorly understood, and that some experts say it is too flimsy to use in court, such evidence has succeeded in reducing defendants' sentences and in some cases clearing them of guilt altogether.
  • (19) Militias are reportedly already preying on displaced people whose flimsy huts dot the city, bright flashes of colour between bullet-pocked buildings.
  • (20) How dangerously flimsy would one's marriage have to be before it felt threatened by other couples signing a different piece of paper – or, indeed, by a same sex couple following you to the altar?

Insubstantial


Definition:

  • (a.) Unsubstantial; not real or strong.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Variation in risk in association with sugar and starch intake was also insubstantial, while for fiber, there was a nonuniform reduction in risk at the three uppermost fifths of intake.
  • (2) Alistair Darling's announcement of a pay freeze for top public servants was today described as cynical and insubstantial by the Conservative leader, David Cameron .
  • (3) He also held a permit to work as a security guard, which he did at a courthouse in Port St Lucie, Florida, even though he was interviewed three times by the FBI in 2013 and 2014 following separate reports of extremist behavior and connections to terrorism that were in the end deemed insubstantial.
  • (4) Carbamazepine caused statistically significant, but clinically insubstantial, reductions in serum sodium and calcium, but not in the other electrolytes measured.
  • (5) Carbamazepine was found to cause statistically significant, but clinically insubstantial, decreases in white blood cell indexes.
  • (6) "I think it is slightly cynical in its timing; it is rather insubstantial in its content and it is not part of an overall approach," Cameron said on GMTV.
  • (7) The teachers in this study underestimated the extent to which their students could comprehend independently, often based on insubstantial evidence.
  • (8) This is rare, but has been observed in very similar form in association with this disorder in a not insubstantial proportion of cases.
  • (9) Last week Sheridan's wife Gail, also 46, was cleared of also committing perjury at the 2006 libel trial after the prosecution decided the case against her was too weak and insubstantial.
  • (10) Many doctors believe that the discomfort felt during such procedures is insubstantial.
  • (11) He argues that the hope that AGI is possible rests on a similarly insubstantial metaphor, namely that the mind is "essentially" a computer program.
  • (12) Since less than 1% of the intracellular 23Na has been estimated to be immobilized, fractional immobilization of intracellular 39K is also likely to be insubstantial.
  • (13) The show is about her “trying to be an adult”, she says (she’s 28), and it flits insubstantially from a duff audience participation game called “Which Disney princess are you?”, via a riff about still getting presents from Santa, to a joke about her anxiety that her friends are all getting married.
  • (14) Some user charges may be justified, especially if these revenues result insubstantial improvements in the quality and availability of services.
  • (15) Paget's disease has been ascribed several times to specimens of archeological bone but, in the absence of microscopic examination, the evidence remains insubstantial.
  • (16) Thus, the claim of a causal relationship between oral contraceptive steroids and thromboembolism does not appear to be firmly founded, and the belief that predisposing factors increase the risk to contraceptive users is equally insubstantial.
  • (17) The plastic body felt "insubstantial" and the mono speaker on the back "only fair".
  • (18) The error in pulse oximetry caused by the presence of carboxyhemoglobin is insubstantial, but methemoglobin gives either an understimation or an overestimation at high or low oxygen saturation, respectively, the turning point being near 70% saturation.
  • (19) I love trees, but the case for forest offsets still strikes me as insubstantial and, ultimately, as ungraspable as air.
  • (20) Variation in risk of BPED across levels defined in terms of daily total alcohol intake, and in terms of daily alcohol intake from individual beverages, was mostly insubstantial and not dose-dependent.