What's the difference between impugn and pugnacious?

Impugn


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To attack by words or arguments; to contradict; to assail; to call in question; to make insinuations against; to gainsay; to oppose.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "But, given the work that was done on behalf of the secretary of state to analyse the effect of the immigration of non-European Economic Area partners and dependent children on the benefits system, the level of income needed to minimise dependence on the state for families where non-EEA partners enter the UK, and what I regard as a rational conclusion on the link between better income and greater chances of integration, my conclusion is that the secretary of state's judgment cannot be impugned.
  • (2) Montanto’s lawyer James Todd deployed a wide variety of arguments in his client’s defense, including impugning past informants and witnesses.
  • (3) So these facts need to be impugned, and that's where David Allen Green and his "myth-busting" legal expertise comes into play.
  • (4) But the Justice Department attorney Ron Wiltsie, who impugned Xenakis’s credentials in tenacious cross-examination, said Dhiab had committed “five assaults since April 2014”.
  • (5) Poll gives Brexit campaign lead of three percentage points Read more Other leading members of the leave campaign have more directly impugned the prime minister’s character, painting him as untrustworthy and damaged as a leader.
  • (6) Despite having sacked the police superintendent , Garry McCarthy, on Monday and ordered the formation of a taskforce into police accountability, questions continue to swirl about what Emanuel knew, and when he knew it – questions that at best raise doubts about his grip over his own city and at worst threaten to impugn his integrity.
  • (7) This is contrary to an assumption I made in estimating that there are about 8 SS dizygotic pairs to every 7 OS pairs (thus impugning Weinberg's differential rule).
  • (8) Last month he was involved in a highly publicised spat with Mark Carney , impugning the Bank of England governor’s impartiality in the Brexit debate.
  • (9) "Clive Palmer would simply be a national laughing stock if his comments didn't impugn the integrity of the AEC," senator Xenophon said.
  • (10) One does not impugn the integrity of Malcolm Fewtrell or the Buckinghamshire CID.
  • (11) There is no thought of impugning the basic honesty of the reporting physician in this statement, but rather of raising the fair question of whether the "slipped disc" (or whatever the etiological diagnosis) is all that happened to produce the symptoms, and whether its removal (or whatever) is all that occurred in accomplishing clinical cure improvement.
  • (12) The prime minister, Peter O’Neill, and the high commissioner, Charles Lepani, have rebuked the opposition for impugning the dignity of PNG.
  • (13) Ever since the rise of the satire boom in the 1960s, the establishment has had to put up with having its values derided, its cherished myths debunked and its bona fides impugned.
  • (14) "Clearly Mr Mitchell is denying using certain words, effectively now impugning the integrity of the police officers," he told Sky News.
  • (15) The then defence secretary, Michael Fallon, blamed the lawyers involved and branded their actions a shameful attempt to use the legal system to attack and falsely impugn the armed forces.
  • (16) He stood by him after Lewandowski was charged with assaulting a female reporter, and even piled on when he tried to impugn that woman’s character.
  • (17) You’d be better off joking about his gigantic dumbo ears or his mole instead of impugning the very idea of human kindness.
  • (18) But aides insist he will not “impugn terrible motives” for such changes, preferring to welcome a convert and merely point out that the policy reversal would have been more useful while Congress was still voting on authorising the trade negotiations.
  • (19) Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon told reporters “basically, the president tried to both guilt people and then impugn their integrity” while Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota tweeted bitterly on Friday morning: “Now President Obama wants to talk?” But, all of Obama’s efforts proved for naught after Pelosi took the floor and spoke out against the deal.
  • (20) He added of his rival’s campaign: “They have a long record they’ve earned in South Carolina of engaging in this kind of trickery and impugning the integrity of whoever their opponent is to distract the attention.

Pugnacious


Definition:

  • (a.) Disposed to fight; inclined to fighting; quarrelsome; fighting.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He even has a soft spot for the Cockney Rejects, pugnacious purveyors of football singalongs.
  • (2) He caught sight of Marine Le Pen on a TV politics show in 2007, inveighing against the European Union in the pugnacious style she honed as a lawyer, warning the government to “stop taking the people for fools”.
  • (3) Nel, nicknamed "the pitbull", is diminutive and pugnacious and a sharp contrast to the tall, silver-haired, urbane Roux.
  • (4) The Guardian has found that Trump’s pugnacious campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski , has more experience in this field than was previously known, having resorted to litigation in his only election as a candidate himself.
  • (5) It appeared to be designed as a permanent – and pugnacious – installation, with none of the usual ropes and pulleys.
  • (6) I wouldn’t have gone in.” National security also sparked the standout clash of the night, when Paul, the libertarian who did most in the Senate to end the bulk collection of phone records in the wake of the disclosures from the whistleblower Edward Snowden , collided with Chris Christie, the pugnacious New Jersey governor.
  • (7) On Friday morning, Rahm Emanuel, the brilliantly pugnacious mayor of Chicago, and former White House chief of staff, told me that, as the grandson of a migrant, he would not assist Trump’s attempts to entrap undocumented children, but instead continue to support them through his community college programme.
  • (8) The pugnacious Schulberg rejected this and broke with party discipline, publishing What Makes Sammy Run?
  • (9) McBride, a football-loving and pugnacious former Treasury civil servant drawn into Brown's inner circle, paid yesterday with his career.
  • (10) "Blowing up the Red Road eyesores is a typically pugnacious Glaswegian way of celebrating the Games.
  • (11) Getting out of the third round proved as tough as he suspected for Dimitrov, who needed three hours and 28 minutes to subdue the pugnacious crowd favourite Marcos Baghdatis in five competitive sets in the early-afternoon heat.
  • (12) Montgomerie, who now edits the Times comment section, had suggested that Gove was excessively "pugnacious and confrontational" in his dealings with the teaching profession.
  • (13) Despite Blanco’s refusal, Ramirez announced he was imposing state command over Cuernavaca’s police, and he suggested dark forces were influencing the pugnacious former athlete, who has never before held public office.
  • (14) Rumpole of the Bailey, the pugnacious barrister created by John Mortimer, of course constantly resisted promotion to the bench.
  • (15) He certainly demonstrates a similar steely resolve, pugnaciousness and disdain for consensus politics that was the hallmark of the Iron Lady.
  • (16) The pugnacious Bannon, a former head of the rightwing Bretibart News who has been dubbed “Trump’s Rasputin”, spoke as if on permanent war footing.
  • (17) • China's "newly pugnacious" foreign policy is "losing friends worldwide", the US ambassador to Beijing argued in a cable .
  • (18) Chris Christie , the pugnacious governor of New Jersey who staked his 2016 presidential campaign on a strong showing in the New Hampshire primary, has suspended his candidacy after winning less than 10% of the vote on Tuesday, a campaign staffer confirmed to the Guardian.
  • (19) Erdoğan said voters had opted for stability, but in characteristically pugnacious form in Istanbul, he also attacked the global media and its criticism of him.
  • (20) As charming and as pugnacious as ever, he survived what might have been disgrace and was certainly unpopularity as an active, cheerful and still optimistic man.