What's the difference between persecute and threaten?

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.

Threaten


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To utter threats against; to menace; to inspire with apprehension; to alarm, or attempt to alarm, as with the promise of something evil or disagreeable; to warn.
  • (v. t.) To exhibit the appearance of (something evil or unpleasant) as approaching; to indicate as impending; to announce the conditional infliction of; as, to threaten war; to threaten death.
  • (v. i.) To use threats, or menaces; also, to have a threatening appearance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) One hundred and twenty-seven states have said with common voice that their security is directly threatened by the 15,000 nuclear weapons that exist in the arsenals of nine countries, and they are demanding that these weapons be prohibited and abolished.
  • (2) The significance of minor increases in the serum creatinine level must be recognized, so that modifications of drug therapy can be made and correction of possibly life-threatening electrolyte imbalances can be undertaken.
  • (3) The hospital whose A&E unit has been threatened with closure on safety grounds has admitted that four patients died after errors by staff in the emergency department and other areas.
  • (4) Certainly, Saunders did not land a single blow that threatened to stop his opponent, although he took quite a few himself that threatened his titles in the final few rounds.
  • (5) Shelter’s analysis of MoJ figures highlights high-risk hotspots across the country where families are particularly at risk of losing their homes, with households in Newham, east London, most exposed to the possibility of eviction or repossession, with one in every 36 homes threatened.
  • (6) Active cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is associated with immunosuppression and predisposes to the development of life-threatening superinfections in immunocompromised patients.
  • (7) A paraesophageal hernia may be life-threatening and requires surgical correction when diagnosed.
  • (8) It is concluded that based on readily available clinical criteria at the time of admission, a subgroup of patients at low risk for developing life-threatening complications requiring coronary care unit interventions can be identified and admitted directly to an intermediate-care unit.
  • (9) Aspergillomas generally arise from saprophytic colonization of a pre-existing pulmonary cavity with Aspergillus, and may be complicated by life-threatening hemoptosis.
  • (10) 1) The incidence of premature rupture of the membranes (PROM), threatened premature delivery, toxemia and abruption placentae were 40.6, 36.4, 7.8 and 3.0%, respectively.
  • (11) I haven't had to face anyone like the man who threatened to call the police when he decided his card had been cloned after sharing three bottles of wine with his wife, or the drunk woman who became violent and announced that she was a solicitor who was going to get this fucking place shut down – two customers Andrew had to deal with on the same night.
  • (12) Martin O’Neill spoke of his satisfaction at the Republic of Ireland’s score draw in the first leg of their Euro 2016 play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina – and of his relief that the match was not abandoned despite the dense fog that descended in the second half and threatened to turn the game into a farce.
  • (13) VAT increases don't just hit the poor more than the rich, they also hit small firms, threaten retail jobs and, by boosting inflation, could also lead to higher interest rates."
  • (14) Interferon alfa-2a appears to induce the early regression of life-threatening corticosteroid-resistant hemangiomas of infancy.
  • (15) The notion of life-threatening dermatoses may seem to be a contradiction in terms, but in fact there are a number of serious dermatologic conditions that require prompt attention to prevent fatal consequences.
  • (16) Ninety women with a positive pregnancy test and signs and symptoms of threatened abortion or ectopic pregnancy had endovaginal and abdominal sonography in order to compare the value of the two techniques for the detection of gestational abnormalities.
  • (17) However in a repeat of the current standoff over the federal budget, the conservative wing of the Republican party is threatening to exploit its leverage over raising the debt ceiling to unpick Obama's healthcare reforms.
  • (18) BAE is likely to have made provision for much heavier penalties and its financial stability will not be threatened.
  • (19) Obstetrician-gynecologists must place lymphocytic adenohypophysitis in the differential diagnosis of pituitary enlargement associated with pregnancy, since treatment is available and the sequelae may be life-threatening.
  • (20) They have repeatedly threatened to derail the country's progress," Kassem added.