What's the difference between overweening and presumptuous?

Overweening


Definition:

  • (a.) Unduly confident; arrogant; presumptuous; conceited.
  • (n.) Conceit; arrogance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Pakistan's recently elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, centre, will be taking on the country's overweening military not just Pervez Musharraf.
  • (2) Most are decades old – the overweening army, the confused place of Islam, the covert support for jihad, deep-rooted corruption, the poisoned bond with America.
  • (3) "No fundamental rights are worth the paper they are written upon unless they can be enforced, especially against overweening and corruptive authorities.
  • (4) This period is often evoked in the films in which he played an overweening ham in fifth-rate shows.
  • (5) The overweening Edinburgh Comedy Festival brand is officially defunct now, and this proliferation of venues, far beyond the so-called Big Four, is a merry jig on its grave.
  • (6) No stranger to accusations of overweening political influence or questionable tax affairs, the media mogul waded into the scandal over Google’s UK tax affairs by accusing the US tech giant of both.
  • (7) The Treasury has also attacked subsidies for renewable energy, which energy experts and green campaigners maintain would provide a lower-cost alternative to the overweening dependence on fossil fuel.
  • (8) The relationship between the museum and Manifesta has been difficult, not least because of its overweening internal bureaucracy.
  • (9) When a group of anti-war activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, on 8 March 1971 they hoped that they would be hitting the bureau’s overweening director, J Edgar Hoover, where it hurt most.
  • (10) We tend to think that were he alive now he would be excoriating those things we think of as Orwellian – CCTV, the communications data bill (AKA snooping bill) that would force email providers to keep records of who messages whom and when, all the choke-holds an overweening state puts on our collective throat.
  • (11) He is a Jew with no religion who has questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel; a naturalised American citizen who is a consistent critic of overweening US power; a person of the left who subscribes to no leftist ideology.
  • (12) We're looking at a situation far worse than the simple avoidance of basic rights such as pensions and paid holiday; it's a system in which poverty is actively enforced by overweening employers whose convenience comes at the price of their employees' dignity.
  • (13) A treason trial would mark the first time in Pakistan's history that a military ruler has been held accountable, and the decision was cheered by many who believe the country's overweening army needs to accept the primacy of elected politicians.
  • (14) They range from patriotic rhetoric, appeals to national sentiment and identity, claims of moral superiority, fear of the other, and the delegitimisation and dehumanisation of the “enemy” to real-time, mass-media communications, mass surveillance, and the overweening power, reach and legal force of a modern-day government.
  • (15) Click image for graphic Illustration: Paul Scruton and Finbarr Sheehy for the Guardian "Smoke and mirrors will not protect media plurality in the UK from the overweening influence of News Corporation," said a spokesman for an alliance of media groups including BT and the publishers of the Daily Mail and the Guardian.
  • (16) In the end, only business could furnish Johnson with the opportunity to build the overweening monuments his ego craved.
  • (17) All the essential elements are there: overweening ambition, a poisoning, a sink of corruption, treachery and blackmail.
  • (18) "Smoke and mirrors will not protect media plurality in the UK from the overweening influence of News Corporation," he said.
  • (19) We're all afraid of the gushing, overweening child inside us.
  • (20) The cathedral echoed with laughter, music, dance – and some sharp rebukes to overweening power: a fitting way to celebrate the 80th birthday of South Africa's spiritual conscience, archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu .

Presumptuous


Definition:

  • (a.) Full of presumption; presuming; overconfident or venturesome; audacious; rash; taking liberties unduly; arrogant; insolent; as, a presumptuous commander; presumptuous conduct.
  • (a.) Founded on presumption; as, a presumptuous idea.
  • (a.) Done with hold design, rash confidence, or in violation of known duty; willful.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Parent involvement is needed, and it is presumptuous to believe that a couple of hours of contact a week can change lives.
  • (2) Even as I read Tynan’s book at 16, I knew theatre was radically changing: I remember presumptuously giving a talk to the sixth form at Warwick School on the new phenomenon of The Angry Young Man.
  • (3) In such a context, it would be quite presumptuous to ascertain the therapeutic efficacy of a drug from those initial human studies.
  • (4) Infantile delivery also frequently serves to take the curse off self-publicity; sleight of hand for those who find "my programme is on BBC2 tonight" too presumptuous and exposing, and prefer to cower behind the low-status imbecility of "I done rote a fingy for da tellybox!"
  • (5) If I may be so presumptuously bold, Martyn Hett’s brother contains more Britishness in his typing thumb than Ms Hopkins contains in her entire output.
  • (6) I am not so presumptuous as to ask instantly for your vote, but in the recent election 700,000 of you stuck with us, but many of you chose someone else.
  • (7) "Humour me with a rare bit of Confederations Cup kit-chat, but am I the only one who finds the ribbon-like collar on the Spain shirt, inferring yet another winner's medal dangling around the neck, to be a bit presumptuous?"
  • (8) That email contained a reminder about their understanding when the event was first arranged: In the absence of hearing from you we have proceeded on the basis you are happy to go ahead even though the commission is still in hearing (not expected when originally arranged) and thought it presumptuous to do other than leave that up to you.
  • (9) May he rest in peace – and, if it’s not presumptuous, my love to you.
  • (10) I mean, in some ways – this seems a little presumptuous and it's not entirely accurate – but actors and CIA agents are [both] migratory and assume different roles.
  • (11) 'Journalism is not a job; it is a way of life' Now for those of you who only know me from the telly or radio, I should point out that it's not completely presumptuous of me to share some thoughts on the future of the press, because I was in newspapers for 23 years, with long stints at the Independent, the Financial Times and the Sunday Telegraph, in that order.
  • (12) The suggestion that Ireland will operate UK migration controls at its own ports and airports carries with it the same presumptuous air.
  • (13) Since we humans are prone to launching chemical weapons, unwittingly killing off the bee population or other factors that could lead to our extinction, it may be presumptuous to imagine what we'll look like in 100,000 years.
  • (14) It is typically arrogant of David Cameron to presume a third Tory term in 2020 before the British public have been given the chance to have their say in this election.” David Cameron talks breasts, thighs – and third terms Read more A Lib Dem spokesperson said: “It’s incredibly presumptuous of David Cameron to be worrying about a third term as prime minister weeks before the general election.” Downing Street sources immediately tried to row back on Cameron’s comments, saying he was only rejecting the idea of serving a full third term.
  • (15) In a rare public appearance, Omar donned what was said to be the cloak of the Prophet Muhammad in Kandahar, and was proclaimed Amir ul-Momineen, Commander of the Faithful, making him the leader of all Muslims, a claim that many found presumptuous.
  • (16) It feels contemptuous and presumptuous and unpleasant.
  • (17) I mean, honestly, it’s presumptuous to suspect that [US negotiating partners] France, Russia, China, Germany and Britain ought to do what the Congress tells them to do.
  • (18) Election 2015: Tories in turmoil after Cameron rules out third term – live Read more Opponents accused Cameron of taking an election victory for granted and behaving in an “incredibly presumptuous manner” by naming Theresa May, Boris Johnson and George Osborne as likely successors in 2020.
  • (19) She said: : "I've always refused to be drawn on any of these discussions, I think it would be deeply presumptuous of me to do so.
  • (20) He told the conference that far from it being arrogant or presumptuous to make detailed plans, it was the reverse.