What's the difference between overthrow and topple?

Overthrow


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To throw over; to overturn; to upset; to turn upside down.
  • (v. t.) To cause to fall or to fail; to subvert; to defeat; to make a ruin of; to destroy.
  • (n.) The act of overthrowing; the state of being overthrow; ruin.
  • (n.) The act of throwing a ball too high, as over a player's head.
  • (n.) A faulty return of the ball by a fielder, so that the striker makes an additional run.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "They have a retaliatory doctrine," Salah argued of the police, whose brutality was a major cause of Egypt's 2011 uprising , but who have become more popular after backing Morsi's overthrow.
  • (2) said a colleague, referring to the former Chadian dictator, who had been living in gilded exile in Dakar since his overthrow in December 1990.
  • (3) Every now and again a leader would promise to reform the system, but it survived, even after upheavals as great as that represented by the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
  • (4) What goes on in The Handmaid’s Tale [the overthrow of the US government by a theocratic dictatorship that suppresses the rights of women] is actually confined to what used to be the United States.
  • (5) The overthrow of the Greek government so that (German finance minister Wolfgang) Schaüble could claim Tsipras’s head as a trophy.
  • (6) Syria’s five-year conflict has taken on an ethnic dimension, with Kurdish groups carving out their own regions and periodically battling groups from Syria’s Arab majority, whose priority is to overthrow Assad.
  • (7) Earlier this primary season, Tea Party-aligned candidates lost a series of high-profile battles, including in Georgia, North Carolina and Kentucky, where there was a failed attempt to overthrow the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell.
  • (8) Sunday's exodus further partitions the country, a process that has been under way since January, when a Muslim rebel government gave up power nearly a year after overthrowing the president of a decade.
  • (9) For those who believed that overthrowing communism would bring immediate prosperity and right the wrongs of the past, the fact that they were still poor while communist officials profited from the transition made it seem like the old order had not really been overthrown.
  • (10) This is certainly not what Libya was meant to become after the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
  • (11) The US had previously signalled its tacit support for the military's actions by giving the go-ahead for the jets' delivery , and by avoiding terming Morsi's overthrow as a coup.
  • (12) The defeated candidate in last month's tense presidential election in Sri Lanka , General Sarath Fonseka, was arrested today at his office in Colombo and is to be charged with attempting a military coup to overthrow the government.
  • (13) In the meantime, Washington is expanding its military presence where it has control (for example, Honduras), and is ready to support the overthrow of left governments when the opportunity arises ( Honduras in 2009 , and Paraguay last year ).
  • (14) Richard Sewell's diary reveals that he and New Zealand ambassador Chris Beeby were closely involved with the ambitious plot to fly the US diplomats to safety at a time when anti-American rhetoric was at an all-time high following the overthrow of the Shah and Washington's decision to harbour its dying ally.
  • (15) But I’m glad it’s finally happened.” Malcolm Turnbull promises new style of leadership after overthrowing Abbott Read more It’s a new day in Australia, with a new prime minister-elect .
  • (16) Jang Song-thaek, previously one of the country's most powerful men, was accused of everything from plotting to overthrow the state to instigating disastrous currency reforms and dishing out pornography in the report from official news agency KCNA.
  • (17) Sabbahi's declaration has already split the leadership of Tamarod, the high-profile protest movement that led calls for Mohamed Morsi's overthrow last summer.
  • (18) Hundreds of policemen and soldiers have been killed during a low-level insurgency that has continued since the overthrow of ex-president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
  • (19) A Muslim Brotherhood-led coalition has planned nationwide protests after Friday prayers as part of their near-daily demonstrations against the overthrow of Morsi and the recent vote on the country's rewritten constitution.
  • (20) The phrase "terrors of the earth" is Arthur Schlesinger's, in his quasi-official biography of Robert Kennedy, who was assigned responsibility to conduct the terrorist war, and informed the CIA that the Cuban problem carries "the top priority in the United States Government – all else is secondary – no time, no effort, or manpower is to be spared" in the effort to overthrow the Castro regime.

Topple


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To fall forward; to pitch or tumble down.
  • (v. t.) To throw down; to overturn.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia – three countries that toppled three dictators nearly four years ago – 2014 marked something of a comeback for the concept of strongman leadership.
  • (2) The Attlee government was toppled by peacetime austerity that voters no longer trusted.
  • (3) "It was not just about toppling the old regime but about building a state where people can have freedom, dignity, rule of law and social justice."
  • (4) Almost three years after US troops withdrew from Iraq and 11 years after their invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, the war on Islamic State is drawing Washington back into the middle of Iraq’s power struggles and bloody sectarian strife.
  • (5) Liu, 61, was jailed in 2009 for allegedly trying to topple China’s one-party state.
  • (6) By now, some MPs loyal to Corbyn had got wind of a plot to topple him that was more serious than the Hodge and Coffey no-confidence vote, with one claiming there was a Whatsapp messaging conversation among frontbenchers known as the Birthday Group.
  • (7) Those who want to see Corbyn toppled as leader disagree about the best way to go about it.
  • (8) After 32 years in power Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, looks destined to become the next Arab leader to be toppled as 11 military commanders, including a senior general, defected from the regime, promising to protect anti-government protesters in the capital.
  • (9) Large parts of the UK have been battered with a second wave of 100mph-plus gales inside 48 hours, causing serious road and rail disruption as the wind toppled a large number of trees.
  • (10) Damn them and their hands for what they are doing.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest The video, released on Thursday, showed men smashing up artefacts dating back to the seventh century BC Assyrian era, toppling statues from plinths, smashing them with a sledgehammer and breaking up a carving of a winged bull with a drill.
  • (11) Sinai-based insurgents, affiliates of Islamic State (Isis), have stepped up attacks on soldiers and police since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
  • (12) The military toppled Morsi three days later, then launched a massive crackdown on the Islamist movement, arresting leaders including Shater and Bayoumi, rounding up field organisers and shutting down Islamic TV networks.
  • (13) They accused the decree of attempting to topple the legal state, make Morsi a God whose decisions cannot be reviewed and build a dictatorship unlike any other Egypt has ever witnessed.
  • (14) Leftwing and liberal parties have called for an open-ended sit-in aimed at "toppling" the decree.
  • (15) Our peaceful revolution will continue until we topple Saleh and establish a civilian state."
  • (16) The al-Qatif governorate of Eastern Province, bordering the Gulf, has been the setting for anti-regime agitation since at least 1979, when Saudi Shias demonstrated in support of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, whose Islamic revolution in Iran that year toppled the shah.
  • (17) Barack Obama portrayed his plans for US military action in Syria as part of a broader strategy to topple Bashar al-Assad, as tougher White House rhetoric began to win over sceptical Republicans in Congress on Tuesday .
  • (18) The fighters are mainly former rebels who toppled Gaddafi with the aid of Nato air strikes.
  • (19) In a carefully worded statement, Obama said he was "deeply concerned" by the military's move to topple Morsi's government and suspend Egypt's constitution.
  • (20) By toppling Gaddafi, Nato interfered with the order of things.