What's the difference between foe and villain?

Foe


Definition:

  • (n.) One who entertains personal enmity, hatred, grudge, or malice, against another; an enemy.
  • (n.) An enemy in war; a hostile army.
  • (n.) One who opposes on principle; an opponent; an adversary; an ill-wisher; as, a foe to religion.
  • (v. t.) To treat as an enemy.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Mohammed Salama, 23, an Al Ahly ultra whose leg was broken in the stadium riot, said it became clear at half-time in the match between the two historical foes that trouble was brewing.
  • (2) Pandas have long been an important symbol of Chinese diplomatic overtures to both allies and former foes.
  • (3) In toxicological studies, the test compound FOE 3440 A, a [(3,5-dichloro-2-pyridyl)oxy]phenoxypropanoate with herbicidal properties, produced a severe increase in weight and an intensive induction of monoxygenases activity in the mouse, but not in the rat.
  • (4) For example, when Baghdad recently moved to revise an earlier version of an oil and gas law to the detriment of the Kurds, the Kurdistan regional government recalled Kurdish officials in Baghdad and, at the same time, invited Maliki's foe, Allawi, to Erbil for emergency talks.
  • (5) Instead, Trump targeted a familiar foe, the media, whom he characterized as responsible for spreading “fake news” about the ACA.
  • (6) As a previous Guardian piece said, the two organisations are foes ( Why ban Hizb ut-Tahrir?
  • (7) Add to that a dangerous nuclear deal with Iran (as Republicans and Israel’s government see it) and the apparent impotence in the face of Islamic State and the Afghanistan volte-face looks, to political foes at least , like clinching proof of serial failure by the commander-in-chief.
  • (8) Someone close to the trust told me in the autumn, "Both parties are bashing the BBC – it used to alternate – but the Tories may have done a bigger deal with [longstanding BBC foe Rupert] Murdoch than Labour did in the mid-90s.
  • (9) But in addition to providing clearer guidance to doctors, the change could have the effect of undermining several state laws, supported by abortion foes, that force clinicians to administer mifepristone according to the old regimen that the FDA approved in 2000.
  • (10) A puppet Government set up at Vichy which may at any moment be forced to become our foe; the whole western seaboard of Europe, from the North Cape to the Spanish frontier, in German hands; all the ports, all the airfields upon this immense front employed against us as potential springboards of invasion.
  • (11) In one way they were right to state the obvious – because Celtic were utter plod at the back – but hubris is best not displayed until you are beyond the reach of vengeance, as opposed to being about to walk into the fortress of the foe you have just mocked.
  • (12) A simple rocket immunoelectrophoresis method foe mu-CD screening is also shown.
  • (13) Syria • President Barack Obama is meeting Senator John McCain at the White House today hoping his foe in the 2008 presidential election will help sell the idea of a US military intervention in Syria .
  • (14) Isis’s violence is far from being nihilistic – a charge usually levelled by those who are wishfully blind to the attraction of their foes.
  • (15) It is useful foe evaluating the effect of antacids after stimulation of acid secretion with a test meal.
  • (16) Then Murray goes on the front foot, jabbing away a volley to make it 40-15, but Federer then wrong-foots his foe with a feathery forehand at the net to hold.
  • (17) But even as Turkey is increasingly drawn into the firing line of Syria’s civil war and the region-wide struggle against Sunni Muslim extremism, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s combative and choleric president, remains stubbornly fixated on a wholly different foe – the Kurds .
  • (18) Have they shamed intransigent foes into seeking a political solution?
  • (19) He concedes that there are several Russians who have annoyed Putin more but says “among foreigners” he’s probably the President’s biggest foe.
  • (20) But on Wednesday morning the eyes of the Russian elite – from ministers to Kremlin critics – will be on an unassuming courthouse in the centre of this city, where Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin's loudest foe, will go on trial charged with embezzlement.

Villain


Definition:

  • (n.) One who holds lands by a base, or servile, tenure, or in villenage; a feudal tenant of the lowest class, a bondman or servant.
  • (n.) A baseborn or clownish person; a boor.
  • (n.) A vile, wicked person; a man extremely depraved, and capable or guilty of great crimes; a deliberate scoundrel; a knave; a rascal; a scamp.
  • (a.) Villainous.
  • (v. t.) To debase; to degrade.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But I know the full story and it’s a bit different from what people see.” The full story is heavy on the extremes of emotion and as the man who took a stricken but much-loved club away from its community, Winkelman knows that his part is that of villain; the war of words will rumble on.
  • (2) They’re not moustache-twirling villains that are going, “ah ha ha that’s great”, they’re going: “You’re right.
  • (3) Society needs a villain and right now we’re convenient.” “ I will carefully admit there has been an awful lot of almonds planted that maybe shouldn’t have been because outside money came in and wanted to plant,” he says.
  • (4) Reith, “his dour handsome face scarred like that of a villain in a melodrama”, was “a strange shepherd for such a mixed, bohemian flock … he had under his aegis a bevy of ex-soldiers, ex-actors, ex-adventurers which … even a Dartmoor prison governor might have had difficulty in controlling”.
  • (5) The success of Capote paved the way for bigger and more nuanced parts for Hoffman, his turn as the villain in Mission: Impossible III (2006) notwithstanding.
  • (6) Maleficent, Disney's latest film out on 28 May, offers the untold back story of the villain from the 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty, with Jolie in the title role.
  • (7) When I was nine or 10 I leapt directly from Doctor Dolittle to Dr No, leaving behind all those stupid talking animals and free-falling into a far naughtier realm of suavely promiscuous government assassins, hot shell-diving beauties and villains with metal hands and messianic plans for humanity.
  • (8) And that’s what we do in drama and comedy: we create our own heroes and villains, so no one really gets hurt.
  • (9) You're a devious villain conducting the perfect crime, like the dashing guest star in the opening scene of a classic Columbo.
  • (10) These villains have limited aspirations, and the man in the white hat has a limited arsenal of era-appropriate weaponry: a gun, a bow and arrow, a few grenades, maybe even a tank.
  • (11) The people shaping the news require a very simple story – they have to be angels and villains.” John Stoltenberg is a gay-rights activist who lived with the feminist writer Andrea Dworkin until her death in 2005.
  • (12) We are not the villains you paint us on your trollblogs.
  • (13) For the real villain – look behind Obama, to the Republican party.
  • (14) It is, according to environmentalist and MP Zac Goldsmith, the most dramatic turnaround of any global green villain ever seen and an encouraging sign that huge environmental challenges can be tackled.
  • (15) As Paltrow explains: “So-called pro-life measures are being used in ways that not only violate women’s reproductive rights, but create the basis for depriving them of their constitutional personhood and human rights.” While it may be easy to cast women who drink in pregnancy as villains, criminalising them does no one any favours, save for those with a broader anti-women agenda.
  • (16) Fleming was intrigued by Engelhard's extravagant lifestyle and when he wrote Goldfinger , published in 1959, he based its eponymous villain on him.
  • (17) In the Kenzie and Gennaro series, like all good detective fiction, the city is as sharp and unpredictable as the villains themselves.
  • (18) Why swapping heroes for heroines is a Top Dollar idea Read more The potential gender-swap casting comes after Britain’s Andrea Riseborough was named earlier this month as a frontrunner to play the villain Top Dollar in a high-profile upcoming remake of cult comic book movie The Crow.
  • (19) Mohammed al-Sabban Senior economic adviser, Saudi Arabia Moustachioed high-up in his country's ministry of petroleum and mineral resources, leader of the Saudi Arabian negotiating team, and a reasonable bet for Copenhagen's most likely villain.
  • (20) For one thing, villains always believe they are exceptional.

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