What's the difference between foolishness and meaningless?

Foolishness


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality of being foolish.
  • (n.) A foolish practice; an absurdity.

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”.

Meaningless


Definition:

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Even if it were not the case that police use a variety of tricks to keep recorded crime figures low, this data would still represent an almost meaningless measure of the extent of crime in society, for the simple reason that a huge proportion of crimes (of almost all sorts) have always gone unreported.
  • (2) Its experiments are so hopelessly flawed that the results are meaningless."
  • (3) "The hollow words of praise from the home secretary are meaningless today.
  • (4) The concept of "polypharmacy", a pejorative and meaningless term, nevertheless gave rise to useful surveys on combined drug use, to methods of monitoring and controlling multiple drug use, and to a small number of studies which imply that a few psychoactive drug-drug combinations are rational.
  • (5) He shrugs in bemusement at what is, to him, a meaningless compliment.
  • (6) Here the meaninglessness of material not only favoured its omission but also often indicated important psychopathology.
  • (7) Good mental health brings with it a whole lot of goodies in Santa’s stocking, because after all, physical fitness and wealth are meaningless without it.
  • (8) We should strip our own national anthem back, and replace the lyrics with our own best-known meaningless word – “oi!” Unless of course Big Liz turns up, and then we can stick in those other words – but she’s not going to, is she?” Netherlands – Tinchy Stryder Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tinchy Stryder has had two UK No1 singles, Number 1 and Never Leave You.
  • (9) Used appropriately, this approach should result in better studies of laboratory tests and fewer meaningless negative studies.
  • (10) On the other hand, the debate for or against abortion is meaningless to the extent that most women seeking abortions are to some degree "against" abortion.
  • (11) Opinion was divided: was it a real day, or a meaningless exercise in flag-waving, with foreign troops still deployed in their homeland?
  • (12) Former Labour science minister Lord Sainsbury said any assurances would be "frankly meaningless" given Pfizer's history of asset-stripping.Allan Black, of the GMB union which represents workers at AstraZenea's Macclesfield factory, said of Pfizer's latest pledges: "Similar undertakings were given by US multinationals before which have proved to be worthless."
  • (13) Our observations indicated that the coronary reserve capacity was very important for ventricular pacing, and suggested that an undue increment of the pacing rate not only might be meaningless but also might induce ischemic angina.
  • (14) No significant difference in response and survival was found between AM and CM groups (complete remission rates were 35% vs 42%, and 10 year survival rates were 31% vs 19%, respectively), but the prevalence of stages III-IV in patients treated with AM makes these results meaningless.
  • (15) Some are also concerned that British citizenship can be stripped from individuals whose other nationality is meaningless to them.
  • (16) – to create a message so simple it’s virtually meaningless.
  • (17) Each sentence seems more absurd than the last until you are finally and irredeemably overwhelmed by its relentless meaningful meaninglessness.
  • (18) But as neighbouring Libya descended into chaos and Islamic State began operating there, those restrictions became virtually meaningless.
  • (19) The answer, I think, is: bankers, bailed out; the royal family, whose income has risen in this recession thanks to the intervention of the chancellor; and those who should bridge the tax gap, estimated at £32bn in 2010-11 by HMRC, but don't, and are only punished with a froth of meaningless rhetoric.
  • (20) Or if there are, they are meaningless and entirely ineffective; they might, in fact, just as well not be lying about at all until the prospector - the journalist - puts them into relation with other facts: presents them in other words.