What's the difference between persecute and pursue?

Persecute


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To pursue in a manner to injure, grieve, or afflict; to beset with cruelty or malignity; to harass; especially, to afflict, harass, punish, or put to death, for adherence to a particular religious creed or mode of worship.
  • (v. t.) To harass with importunity; to pursue with persistent solicitations; to annoy.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The UNHCR said in a statement: “International law prescribes that no individual can be returned involuntarily to a country in which he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution.” The Tamil Refugee Council said it had spoken with a relative of one of the asylum seekers on board the vessel from India.
  • (2) But a former Manus immigration caseworker, Liz Thompson, told Guardian Australia on Tuesday she was aware of at least three cases where asylum seekers on Manus had presented their sexuality as a reason for their persecution during protection interviews since September last year, indicating the department would be well aware there were gay asylum seekers on Manus.
  • (3) Members of the Ahmadiyya community, an Islamic sect, have faced persecution in other areas of Britain from some other Muslims who do not recognise them as fellow Muslims but Ahmedi said they had not had the same experience in Crawley – proof that it was a tolerant community.
  • (4) Of UK respondents: 84% agreed that “people should be able to take refuge in other countries to escape war or persecution”.
  • (5) It’s a very complicated picture, both in terms of how agencies view press freedoms and in terms of Iranian laws.” Iran has long been condemned for its ongoing persecution of journalists, which has been stepped up in recent months.
  • (6) The UN considers the Rohingya to be one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.
  • (7) But I think there’s also a huge learning curve for social workers in understanding the massive journeys that people are making and the situation they have come from – the fighting they’ve seen, the discrimination, the persecution.” Join the Social Care Network to read more pieces like this.
  • (8) • Detainees’ families have suffered further persecution: for example, the wives of Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang, Xie Yang and Xie Yanyi have been subjected to police monitoring and harassment; the children of Li Heping and Wang Quanzhang have been denied enrolment at state schools due to police pressure; and the authorities have put pressure on the landlords of Wang Quanzhang’s and Xie Yanyi’s families to evict them from their homes.
  • (9) "I do not believe it is acceptable to send people home and expect them to hide their sexuality to avoid persecution," said May.
  • (10) Nothing should diminish the reality that Eritrean victims of that persecution deserve our solidarity, and need to be supported by all of us who believe that conciliation and concession to regimes such as exists in Eritrea will surely fail.
  • (11) Najia Bounaim, deputy campaigns director at Amnesty International’s Tunis office, said the arrest was “the latest chilling example of the Egyptian authorities’ systematic persecution of independent human rights defenders.” “We believe she has been arrested for her legitimate human rights work and must be released immediately and unconditionally,” she said.
  • (12) Sure, he has been doing the chat-show circuit in the US this past week to promote his latest sitcom, Bent (no relation to the Nazi homosexual persecution play – it's an Amanda Peet vehicle in which she may or may not go to bed with her builder).
  • (13) Asylum seekers take perilous boat journeys with their children because they judge the risk of violence, persecution and death where they are to be greater than the risk of getting on that boat.
  • (14) The people who were persecuting him and his companions and his sympathizers.
  • (15) Children who after the war were born into families of previously persecuted people--19 persons.
  • (16) When Pope Francis came to visit … he didn’t just speak about Christians who were being persecuted,” Obama said.
  • (17) Habib, who had lived in Australia since 2000, was visiting relatives who are part of the Hazara community, which has been regularly persecuted by the Taliban.
  • (18) Just over a third said they were persecuted through fear or threats, saying their career was deliberately sabotaged.
  • (19) The international community must honour the dying wish of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo by taking immediate steps to protect his wife, the poet Liu Xia , who has endured years of government persecution, friends and supporters have said.
  • (20) Some gifted and canny writers have made a mint by appealing to teenagers’ sense of anguish and victimhood, the notion that they are forever embattled and persecuted by a rotten world run by authoritarian bozos.

Pursue


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To follow with a view to overtake; to follow eagerly, or with haste; to chase; as, to pursue a hare.
  • (v. t.) To seek; to use or adopt measures to obtain; as, to pursue a remedy at law.
  • (v. t.) To proceed along, with a view to some and or object; to follow; to go in; as, Captain Cook pursued a new route; the administration pursued a wise course.
  • (v. t.) To prosecute; to be engaged in; to continue.
  • (v. t.) To follow as an example; to imitate.
  • (v. t.) To follow with enmity; to persecute; to call to account.
  • (v. i.) To go in pursuit; to follow.
  • (v. i.) To go on; to proceed, especially in argument or discourse; to continue.
  • (v. i.) To follow a matter judicially, as a complaining party; to act as a prosecutor.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The idea that 80% of an engineer's time is spent on the day job and 20% pursuing a personal project is a mathematician's solution to innovation, Brin says.
  • (2) We are pursuing legal action because there are still so many unanswered questions about the viability of Shenhua’s proposed koala plan and it seems at this point the plan does not guarantee the survival of the estimated 262 koalas currently living where Shenhua wants to put its mine,” said Ranclaud.
  • (3) We have now started a prospective follow-up study in order to pursue the development of (a) p-ERG amplitudes and (b) funduscopic changes and visual acuity in these patients.
  • (4) Principal conclusions are: 1) rapid change to predominantly heterosexual HIV transmission can occur in North America, with serious societal impact; 2) gender-specific clinical features can lead to earlier diagnosis of HIV infection in women; 3) HIV infection in women does not pursue an inherently more rapid course than that observed in men.
  • (5) These results suggest that ED2+ macrophages, TRPM-3+ macrophages, and Ia+ dendritic cells are distinct cell lines that pursue independent developmental process in spleen ontogeny.
  • (6) In conclusion, 1) etiology of urinary tract stone in all recurrent stone formers and in all patients with multiple stones must be pursued, and 2) all stones either removed or passed must be subjected to infrared spectrometry.
  • (7) And that is why we have taken bold action at home – by making historic investments in renewable energy; by putting our people to work increasing efficiency in our homes and buildings; and by pursuing comprehensive legislation to transform to a clean energy economy.
  • (8) He said he will pursue new measures, including demolishing the homes of instigators.
  • (9) Pfizer kept up its efforts to get AstraZeneca to the negotiating table over its £63bn approach as it reported revenue well below Wall Street expectations, underscoring its interest in pursuing its UK rival to promote new business growth.
  • (10) Bostock, who is long thought to have had a tense relationship with chief executive Marc Bolland , is departing by "mutual consent to pursue other interests" on 1 October, when she will also leave the M&S board.
  • (11) We are effectively in funding limbo Professor Barney Glover, Universities Australia chair Glover was also set to emphasise the need for affordability because “cost must not deter any capable student from pursuing a university education”.
  • (12) Many cases before the commissioner remain unresolved, although those who wish to pursue matters to the tribunal as part of the transitional arrangements will not have to pay an additional fee to appeal to the tribunal.
  • (13) "And if you're pursuing music as the equivalent of your nine-to-five, and you'd quite like to be doing that for years to come, it's in your interest not to rock the boat."
  • (14) Residents of Cardiff , Cumbria and Plymouth are either dallying with the idea or actively pursuing it.
  • (15) According to his blog, he's been acting on the advice of a friend and pursuing a course of "silence, exile and cunning", but I'm not sure a couple of years of not giving interviews to Heat qualifies.
  • (16) However, further studies involving more patients are required to pursue this hypothesis.
  • (17) That is the strategy I’m pursuing in Nehalem, Oregon , where I recently ran for mayor.
  • (18) Other findings showed highly satisfactory to above average performance of graduates whether based on residency supervisors' evaluations or self-evaluations and higher ratings for the graduates who selected surgery residency programs than for those pursuing other disciplines.
  • (19) A hypothetical scheme is presented that pursues the processes involved in invasion from the biochemical events generated by attachment of the parasite, to the steric rearrangement of red cell membrane proteins, which culminates in invasion.
  • (20) While Claude Moraes MEP's committee on surveillance is admirably pursuing this agenda, member states remain unresponsive.