What's the difference between foolhardy and foolish?

Foolhardy


Definition:

  • (a.) Daring without judgment; foolishly adventurous and bold.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "The labour data suggests that the recovery is ticking over quite nicely, though it would be foolhardy to get complacent given that the risks facing the economy are skewed to the downside."
  • (2) It would be foolhardy to venture technological predictions for 2050.
  • (3) E.ON was the only one brave – or foolhardy – enough to put its head above the parapet and make a formal application to the government.
  • (4) Plainly the system has faults, but seeking to upend things at a time when the public can see no imminent need for change might be considered brave if not foolhardy.
  • (5) It would be foolhardy to offer an inflexible step-care protocol for the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, given its heterogeneity and our uncertainty about its pathogenesis.
  • (6) But for me to say ‘this is what we’re going to do’ would be very foolhardy in the first place and, secondly, dishonest because the truth is I don’t know.” He couched it perfectly, especially for those who were with him on the training camp in Miami before the World Cup when, barely a day after one of his predecessors, Sven-Goran Eriksson, stated there was “absolutely no way” England could win it, the manager abandoned all restraint and fell into the trap.
  • (7) Is it foolhardy of the younger Joe to hang on to the life he knows, even when the future is warning him against it?
  • (8) It would be foolhardy for Iran to want to break out, they say, as there would be a high probability that its work would be discovered before it had made a single weapon.
  • (9) To throw that protection away in response to business demands without any plans to secure improvement in journalism is foolhardy and an insult to our local communities."
  • (10) "People thought we were extremely brave, or foolhardy," says Annie Hudson, Bristol social services divisional director for children, about her predecessor's decision to let in the cameras.
  • (11) The risk for Purnell is that his act of courage - or foolhardiness - will not pull the government down with him, but leave it standing but impotent, the cabinet weakened but intact, too strong to fall apart entirely even though too weak to command events.
  • (12) "[G]iven the deaths of 15 million people during the war, attempting to position 1918 as a simplistic, nationalistic triumph seems … foolhardy, not least because the very same tensions re-emerged to such deadly effect in 1939.
  • (13) Sending money to Washington and expecting central planners to send it back in a way that will grow jobs is foolhardy,” he said.
  • (14) Reviews are always somewhat retrospective in outlook; to write a review at the present time is especially foolhardy since developments in biology are such that totally new concepts can arise almost overnight, as it were.
  • (15) Actually using a bike as a means of getting from A to B along normal roads is still a matter for the brave and the foolhardy, and cyclists on the roads are a rare sight indeed.
  • (16) But flouting both simultaneously is for the foolhardy alone.
  • (17) It would be foolhardy to suggest we’re out of the woods yet, though, and share prices are likely to remain volatile for some time.” Markets have endured some of the worst volatility since the financial crisis amid fears over China’s slowing economy.
  • (18) Río Doce's willingness to go further than other local papers is not, however, foolhardy bravery.
  • (19) But at the moment, they are not recognised as anyone’s territory and we can sail legally, peacefully through these alleged 12-mile limits.” Conroy said while it would be “foolhardy” for the government to announce a freedom-of-navigation exercise in advance of it happening, Australia “should be prepared to defend the international system”.
  • (20) In what some have termed a foolhardy plan, others highly idealistic, the movement plans to reconstruct the city regardless of who wins the war.

Foolish


Definition:

  • (a.) Marked with, or exhibiting, folly; void of understanding; weak in intellect; without judgment or discretion; silly; unwise.
  • (a.) Such as a fool would do; proceeding from weakness of mind or silliness; exhibiting a want of judgment or discretion; as, a foolish act.
  • (a.) Absurd; ridiculous; despicable; contemptible.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) So, logic would dictate that if Greeks are genuinely in favour of reform – and opinion polls have consistently shown wide support for many of the structural changes needed – they would be foolish to give these two parties another chance.
  • (2) It would be foolish to bet that Saudi Arabia will exist in its current form a generation from now.” Memories of how the Saudis and Opec deliberately triggered an economic crisis in the west in retaliation for US aid to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur war still rankle.
  • (3) That's foolish, because Real Madrid rarely look more uncomfortable than at set pieces.
  • (4) "We regret that Congress was forced to waste its time voting on a foolish bill that was premised entirely on false claims and ignorance," David Jenkins, an REP official, said in a statement.
  • (5) Shorten said while Hicks was “foolish to get caught up in the Afghanistan conflict” the court decision showed an injustice.
  • (6) Many commentators considered the suggestion merely foolish, but computer hackers issued death threats against her and her children, which she promptly posted on Twitter, along with the defiant message: "Get stuffed, losers.
  • (7) And it means that if Labour were to win, Mr Brown would be very foolish, indeed downright wrong, to move Mr Darling.
  • (8) "It was a certain kind of titillation the shop offered," the critic Matthew Collings has written, "sexual but also hopeless, destructive, foolish, funny, sad."
  • (9) Describing the moment McKellen knocked on his dressing room door he said: “I ushered him in nervously, expecting notes for my poor performance or indiscipline – I was a foolish, naughty young actor.
  • (10) But what people did when they were young and foolish, or even when they were not yet public figures, is not always the same.
  • (11) While we have this, it would be foolish to pursue a policy of still constraining resources in the acute sector.
  • (12) All three echoed remarks made recently by the Bank’s governor, Mark Carney, who said it would be “foolish” to cut rates in response to a temporary fall in inflation.
  • (13) Since the initially peaceful demonstrations against his regime began more than three years ago, he has proved himself, by turns, foolish, craven and vicious.
  • (14) In a high-risk, 65-minute speech in Manchester delivered without notes, and 20 minutes longer than he intended, Miliband tried to take the mantle of the 19th-century Tory prime minister Benjamin Disraeli's one nation, pointedly grabbing the territory and language of the centre ground which he believes David Cameron has foolishly vacated.
  • (15) But one backbencher, West Australian Liberal Dennis Jensen , has said it is foolish to set up a $20bn medical research fund at the same time as the government is cutting money from scientific agencies, including the CSIRO and the Australian Research Council.
  • (16) Donald Trump is too weak, too foolish and too chaotic to see beyond the immediate crises he has created.
  • (17) Here, too, Capote displayed uncanny journalistic skills, capturing even the most languid and enigmatic of subjects – Brando in his pomp – and eliciting the kinds of confidences that left the actor reflecting ruefully on his "unutterable foolishness".
  • (18) They privately acknowledge they were foolish in taking the bait, but argue they have broken no rules since they were offered no jobs, and therefore have no commercial interests to declare in the MPs' register.
  • (19) "Hopefully, the lesson is to stop this foolish childishness," McCain said Thursday on CNN.
  • (20) The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes.” As for the social conditions that obtain: “It is exactly the existing conditions that one objects to, and any scheme that could accept these conditions is wrong and foolish.” Looking back on my political activism of the 1970s and 80s, there was a lot of refusing to accept existing conditions on the basis that they were “wrong and foolish”.

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