What's the difference between foolish and mistake?

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”.

Mistake


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make or form amiss; to spoil in making.
  • (v. t.) To take or choose wrongly.
  • (v. t.) To take in a wrong sense; to misunderstand misapprehend, or misconceive; as, to mistake a remark; to mistake one's meaning.
  • (v. t.) To substitute in thought or perception; as, to mistake one person for another.
  • (v. t.) To have a wrong idea of in respect of character, qualities, etc.; to misjudge.
  • (v. i.) To err in knowledge, perception, opinion, or judgment; to commit an unintentional error.
  • (n.) An apprehending wrongly; a misconception; a misunderstanding; a fault in opinion or judgment; an unintentional error of conduct.
  • (n.) Misconception, error, which when non-negligent may be ground for rescinding a contract, or for refusing to perform it.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Based upon the analysis of 1015 case records of patients, aged 16-70, with different hip joint pathology types, carried out during 1985-1990, there were revealed mistakes and complications after reconstructive-restorative operations.
  • (2) But to treat a mistake as an automatic disqualification for advancement – even as heinous a mistake as presiding over a botched operation that resulted in the killing of an innocent man – could be depriving organisations, and the country, of leaders who have been tested and will not make the same mistake again.
  • (3) It's a mistake to say Etonians are as they are because of their families.
  • (4) Conservationists have warned that they can affect fish growth and persist in the guts of mussels and fish that mistake them for food.
  • (5) After trading mistakes, Wawrinka got lucky at 30-30, mishitting a service return and fooling Djokovic.
  • (6) Masutha said the parole board had made a mistake when they approved Pistorius for early release, but his intervention has been widely criticised by legal experts.
  • (7) After winning his prize, Malcolm Turnbull must learn from Abbott's mistakes Read more Abbott appointed Warren Mundine to head his hand picked advisory council on Indigenous affairs.
  • (8) BUSH ON IRAQ TONIGHT: Mr President, if I can move on to the question of Iraq, when we last spoke before the Iraq war, I asked you about Saddam Hussein and you said this, and I quote: "He harbours and develops weapons of mass destruction, make no mistake about it."
  • (9) I believe Flower when he promises he would not repeat his mistake.
  • (10) He admitted to "very serious mistakes", highlighting problems with the party's channels of communication.
  • (11) But Wawrinka, who seemed to be flexing his knee a moment ago, is making more mistakes.
  • (12) "Don't be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we've made some mistakes.
  • (13) The most common provoking factor in case of status and series were medication mistakes.
  • (14) The UN already made a mistake, they broke their own rule.
  • (15) Make no mistake about who the chief beneficiaries are.
  • (16) He added that the appearance this week on Libyan television of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi showed it had been a mistake by the Scottish justice minister to release him on compassionate grounds in 2009.
  • (17) Other parents are going to have to look into it, because I’ve made a big mistake moving him.
  • (18) Mistakes in maternity care account for a third of the £1bn a year the NHS has to spend settling medical negligence claims.
  • (19) These figures cast doubt on health secretary Jeremy Hunt's claim that the rise in A&E attendances was due to Labour's "historic mistake" in 2004 to let GPs no longer take responsibility for providing out-of-hours care.
  • (20) We make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil.

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