What's the difference between foible and weakness?

Foible


Definition:

  • (a.) Weak; feeble.
  • (n.) A moral weakness; a failing; a weak point; a frailty.
  • (n.) The half of a sword blade or foil blade nearest the point; -- opposed to forte.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Many of the patients anthropomorphise the seal, enjoy pretending that it is a real, living creature, with all the associated foibles.
  • (2) This week's edition of the FT's How to Spend It, suggests some Christmas foibles – £625 gloves, £705 Black Amber perfume, a £10,000 Boodles bangle.
  • (3) We're given a vivid description, details and foibles, before the town is populated with a cast of characters to rival any soap opera.
  • (4) If the mot juste was always a priority – "I suppose we all have our foibles.
  • (5) The sharp-witted late-night TV star, who regularly skewers the foibles of other celebrities, found himself on the end of the same treatment after being at the centre of a bizarre blackmail plot over the sexual affairs he had with younger female staff members.
  • (6) Children and their services have been prey to causes célèbres, fashion and the exaggerated fads and foibles of the media and politicians; they have thrived best when society and their carers were tolerant, and loving, sought good qualities to augment, not evil to exorcise, and succeeded in balancing structure and control with flexibility and freedom to grow.
  • (7) While cables exposing the foibles of Pakistan's civilian leaders triggered a media feeding frenzy, the press largely ignored revelations that cast the powerful military in a bad light, including its alleged support for Islamist extremist groups such as the Taliban.
  • (8) This is not about the exposure of one man's alleged foibles.
  • (9) We tend not to pin that badge on Ukip because of a paradoxical foible of Britishness that makes imagined immunity from aggressive identity politics a point of national pride.
  • (10) I'm afraid I didn't enjoy either Django Unchained or Inglourious Basterds – they were too self-reverential for my taste – but, as a writer, nobody in the world has a better ear for the foibles and vulnerabilities of his bad guys than Tarantino.
  • (11) Gray was as funny and vicious about his own haplessness as he was about the foibles of others.
  • (12) WS: That Bafta routine of yours in the show was the crux for me – a perfect exemplar of your character’s foibles, because the ambiguity is absolute: Does he care about not winning one or not?
  • (13) By contrast, this collection – which will be available online immediately and in shops in July – celebrated British foibles and eccentricities, in the animal-motif knitwear and eclectic mix of town and country fabrics.
  • (14) The well done steak is not simply a personal foible, like preferring pepperoni pizza to a margarita.
  • (15) And, for all his foibles, Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter is a man you'd follow, too.
  • (16) This essay on the last years of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's life exhibits all of Sebald's strengths as a writer – and all of his strange, gnomic, secretive foibles.
  • (17) For example, I've never heard him acknowledge that, in joking about Georgina Sachs's sexual foibles and menstrual cycle , he was demeaning to her.
  • (18) Over the years, scrutiny of Westminster has gradually come to rest on personal foibles, grudges and coups both real and imaginary - a kind of higher office-politics.
  • (19) The emphasis was always on the comedy, the foibles and peccadilloes of the characters, a gentle cynicism about the ways of the world, a joy in puns, a love of irritating footnotes, a relish for the bathetic puncturing of the bombastic – and above all an irrepressible and infectious silliness.
  • (20) None of us is free of foibles and peculiarities that the patient notices sooner or later.

Weakness


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality or state of being weak; want of strength or firmness; lack of vigor; want of resolution or of moral strength; feebleness.
  • (n.) That which is a mark of lack of strength or resolution; a fault; a defect.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There was a weak relation between AER and both systolic and diastolic blood pressures.
  • (2) Muscle weakness and atrophy were most marked in the distal parts of the legs, especially in the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, and then spread to the thighs and gluteal muscles.
  • (3) Consensual but rationally weak criteria devised to extract inferences of causality from such results confirm the generic inadequacy of epidemiology in this area, and are unable to provide definitive scientific support to the perceived mandate for public health action.
  • (4) The strengths and weaknesses of each technique are described in this article.
  • (5) In group V, five cases of Taenia saginata parasitosis were studied showing a weak positive reading.
  • (6) Although the longest period required for resolving weakness was three days, the MRI, the CT and the electroencephalogram revealed no significant abnormality.
  • (7) Her muscle weakness and hyperCKemia markedly improved by corticosteroid therapy, suggesting that the diagnosis was compatible with polymyositis (PM).
  • (8) It was concluded that Ta acts as a weak zeitgeber in laboratory rats and has greater effects on males compared to females.
  • (9) And adding to this toxic mix, was the fear that the hung parliament would lead to a weak government.
  • (10) Sensory loss, motor weakness, paraesthesia and a new pain were found as complications in 12, 7, 4 and 6 patients, respectively.
  • (11) Here's Dominic's full story: US unemployment rate drops to lowest level in six years as 288,000 jobs added Michael McKee (@mckonomy) BNP economists say jobless rate would have been 6.8% if not for drop in participation rate May 2, 2014 2.20pm BST ING's Rob Carnell is also struck by the "extraordinary weakness" of US wage growth .
  • (12) In general, enzyme activity was strongly reduced by heavy metal inorganic cations; less strongly by organometallic cations, some anions, and certain pesticides; and weakly inhibited by light metal cations and organometallic and organic compounds.
  • (13) The weakness was treated by intensive physical rehabilitation with complete and sustained recovery in all cases.
  • (14) It also showed weak inhibition of the solid type of Ehrlich carcinoma and prolonged the survival period of mice inoculated with L-1210 cells.
  • (15) Exposure to whole cigarette smoke from reference cigarettes results in the prompt (peak activity is 6 hrs), but fairly weak (similar to 2 fold), induction of murine pulmonary microsomal monooxygenase activity.
  • (16) Though the concept of phase, known also as focus, is a very helpful notion, its empirical foundation is yet very weak.
  • (17) DL 071 IT, a new potent non-selective beta-adrenergic blocking drug with intrinsic sympathomimetic activity and weak membrane stabilizing activity, was evaluated alone and in comparison with oxprenolol, in six volunteers, at rest and during an exercise test.
  • (18) A variety of weak acids at and below their pK(a) are potent inhibitors of transport in Penicillium chrysogenum.
  • (19) It added that the crisis had highlighted significant weaknesses in financial regulation, with further measures needed to strengthen supervision.
  • (20) The radioprotective action in E. coli ATCC 9637 of ascorbate added to media containing the weak sensitizer, tetracycline (effect described by Pittillo and Lucas (1967)), was found to be dependent on the presence of metal catalysts of the autoxidation of ascorbate.