What's the difference between irreverent and preachy?

Irreverent


Definition:

  • (a.) Not reverent; showing a want of reverence; expressive of a want of veneration; as, an irreverent babbler; an irreverent jest.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This country has had a free press for the last 300 years, that has been irreverent and rude as my website is and holding public officials to account.
  • (2) Animal Practice is a Universal Television production based on an irreverent New York veterinarian, played by Justin Kirk of Weeds and Angels in America.
  • (3) There has been much pointing-and-chortling of late at the Daily Mail's embarrassing failure to stoke national outrage over a mildly irreverent comment about the Queen's sex life blurted out by Jack Whitehall on a festive panel show.
  • (4) One irreverent Australian columnist has suggested that the "Lizard of Oz" may now be more fitting, given that the Aboriginal meaning for Kadina, the country town north of Adelaide where Crosby grew up, is "Lizard Plain".
  • (5) He showed an irreverence for the lives of the great composers that sometimes came in for criticism.
  • (6) Ian Hislop, the long-serving editor, had a suitably topical and irreverent take on the vicissitudes of the magazine's circulation.
  • (7) The required skill of comedians-turned-presenters is to seem irreverent while rocking no boats.
  • (8) In our own time, Brooke has become the haunting symbol of a doomed generation, flitting across the pages of novels by Alan Hollinghurst and AS Byatt like a volatile and irreverent Peter Pan.
  • (9) Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman described Entwistle as "clever, erudite, a man, critically, who reads books, a man with a sense of humour and a great degree of irreverence, not least about the BBC.
  • (10) He could often be seen eating spicy lamb chops at his favourite curry houses, flattering local businessmen and speaking irreverently about parliamentary colleagues.
  • (11) He achieved a succession of scoops, and was largely responsible for training up a generation of gifted young journalists, notably the irreverent gossip columnist, Nigel Dempster ...
  • (12) But, unlike the supine press so common abroad, they still have the irreverent vigour and diversity of a true political safeguard.
  • (13) "I love that a country capable of extraordinary pomp and ceremony can still retain a spiky irreverence towards its establishment.
  • (14) Hall might be a scion of one of Britain's most important theatrical dynasties (his father is Peter, his half-sister Rebecca), but the cocky irreverence of his productions showed he had every intention of making his own mark.
  • (15) "The culture of protest needs to develop," one of the members of Pussy Riot said last month, and indeed as much as the band represent a form of protest in Russia, they also embody a shift in culture that echoes the DIY culture that flourished in the Seattle and Olympia areas of Washington in the early 90s – fanzines, garage punk bands, a tone of wild irreverence and a wish to question tradition.
  • (16) Jordan’s al-Hudoud, a bundle of irreverent online fun, recently ran a delightful story about the arrest of Father Christmas and the confiscation of presents he was distributing.
  • (17) Because they seemed to represent the best of journalistic virtues – courage, campaigning, toughness, compassion, humour, irreverence; a serious engagement with serious things; a sense of fairness; an eye for injustice; a passion for explaining; knowing how to achieve impact; a connection with readers.
  • (18) Many Muscovites were happy enough to see a tough response to the band's irreverent act of rebellion, which was aimed at President Vladimir Putin .
  • (19) I mean merely to josh, not to be blatantly irreverent, for who would seriously argue that Roth's career is not worthy of celebration?
  • (20) Catch-22 was an irreverent, savage and cruel satire.

Preachy


Definition:

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "There's funny and joking, the two are different … As things progressed, both with adult and junior books, I found that in subtle kinds of ways, without being preachy at all, you could suggest rather interesting things."
  • (2) This is where you may think I’m getting a little preachy, but I’m genuinely trying to avoid that.
  • (3) Oliver's playfulness gives him licence to criticise that which in hosts Bill Maher or Piers Morgan comes off as aggressive, preachy or so politically skewed as to be pandering to one cause or another.
  • (4) Despite the circumstances, this blog is far from preachy – Erin's refreshing approach to vegetarian cooking feels more like a journal, less like an example.
  • (5) And if there are many respectful quibbles about the nature of Sorkin's preachy drama, there isn't anyone who's saying, it's just not true.
  • (6) The flip side of Cash's gritty, carved-from-stone persona was a tendency to preachiness, and this came to the fore in a string of long-winded "concept" albums such as Ride This Train (1960), Blood, Sweat And Tears (1963) and True West (1965).
  • (7) Every story is a manual on how to be a good person, but without ever being preachy.
  • (8) They can be preachy and holier-than-thou, even as their scandal-hit ministers keep coming.
  • (9) That preachy, patronising thing – it was necessary at the time, but audiences have become more sophisticated."
  • (10) That’s part of what Robin Williams did with socially conscious material – he made you laugh, but he also taught you something, and not in a preachy way, either.
  • (11) Her voice was insistent but not preachy, her analysis detailed but never obscure.
  • (12) The ad staked out the London Paper's claim as the liberal voice of London, dispensing with the "lecturing and preachy tone of its rival" and reflecting "the racial, sexual, cultural, economic and political diversity" of the capital.
  • (13) Pride engages the audience not in party politics or preachy agendas, but in much bigger concepts of generosity and compassion.
  • (14) Far from being preachy and simplistic, Brecht proves to be pungent and complex.
  • (15) Several months in, she got a nanny and she now works at least three hours a day on the site, which has been compared to Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop , though it's less preachy.