What's the difference between foolish and piffle?

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”.

Piffle


Definition:

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Is it hopelessly old fart-ish to hope exposure that to the horrors described by Buergenthal will remind all of us of the piffling nature of our next household conflagration about who gets to wear which pair of jeans, or whether homework on the weekend really constitutes a hardship – or even, somehow, temper the demand for new electronic equipment?
  • (2) If he can't do this here, then his global rhetoric will look thin indeed - and it's no use announcing some piffling sum and pretending it will do.
  • (3) Dan Nolan (@dannolan) PEFO more like piffle boom August 13, 2013 3.40am BST Bowen is asked whether the assumptions in PEFO are a reflection on the efficacy or otherwise of the PNG Solution.
  • (4) The bottom line for us is they were asking the taxpayers for $50m to buy new plant and equipment … so Coca-Cola Amatil could make a larger profit,” Hockey said, as he campaigned for next weekend’s by-election in the Brisbane seat of Griffith But Sharman Stone, the Coalition backbencher who represents the area, said the government is “scapegoating” SPC Ardmona and exaggerating “piffling” issues in the companies’ enterprise agreement to draw the struggling fruit manufacturer into a “union witch-hunt”.
  • (5) The government is “scapegoating” SPC Ardmona and exaggerating “piffling” issues in the companies’ enterprise agreement to draw the struggling fruit manufacturer into a “union witch-hunt”, the Coalition backbencher Sharman Stone has said.
  • (6) As a result, disabled people are losing more than any other group, not by some piffling, coincidental amount, but by a factor of three or four; by thousands of pounds a year.
  • (7) It’s true that claimants are sanctioned for piffling reasons .
  • (8) The targets aren't piffling, incidentally – they are significantly beyond "answering to your name".
  • (9) There was never any question of me being offered it, or of it being debated … It’s just, as they say, poppycock and piffle.” The tensions surrounding the reshuffle were illustrated in the early evening as a heated discussion appeared to break out in Corbyn’s office after the Labour leader outlined his thinking for the reshuffle to Benn.
  • (10) Eurosceptics are right to think that the terms secured are piffling, even if he gets everything on the table.
  • (11) But there is, at least, anecdotal evidence to suggest that the often perceptive mayor's notion is an "inverted pyramid of piffle".
  • (12) Over the past century they were used not only to "explain" this piffle about cornflakes but, more insidiously, to explain differences in achievement between black and white schoolchildren in the US.
  • (13) Cameron found himself on the back foot, defending his plans to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership in the face of Lawson's contemptuous assessment that he will secure only "piffling changes".
  • (14) The DfE’s guidelines on the use of exclamation marks for its spelling and grammar tests were “piffle” and “tortuous nonsense”, according to Blower.
  • (15) But Stone, the member for the seat of Murray which includes Shepparton, said the provisions were “piffling” and “add up at most to a few thousand dollars when the company has been losing millions at the plant because of the broader economic conditions and because of the government’s policies.” The “wet” allowance, she said, had only ever been paid to workers who provided their own protective “space suits” to be worn when using caustic soda to clean the plant.
  • (16) Sandler, a perennial Razzie "favourite", saw his film beat rivals such as Will and Jaden Smith sci-fi bomb After Earth , festive celluloid piffle A Madea Christmas and ensemble turkey Movie 43 , all of which scored six nominations.
  • (17) These sentiments are dismissed by Merivel's Quaker friend, Pearce, as "pagan, freakish piffle", but Merivel clings to them, orders an artist's smock and a floppy hat, canvases, pigments and brushes, and sets about his task with his characteristic over-enthusiasm, only to understand very quickly that his work has no value whatsoever.
  • (18) But he wrote a load of racist, reactionary, negative, neocon piffle."
  • (19) There was never any question of me being offered it, or of it being debated … It’s just, as they say, poppycock and piffle.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest “It’s poppycock and piffle”: Diane Abbott dismisses shadow foreign secretary rumour Lewis, a new MP who has served in the army in Afghanistan, said he would not be keen to take on a shadow cabinet role so quickly.
  • (20) Instead, I'm snacking on the scraps of joyous piffle like Alex Polizzi's The Fixer .

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