What's the difference between pounce and prance?

Pounce


Definition:

  • (n.) A fine powder, as of sandarac, or cuttlefish bone, -- formerly used to prevent ink from spreading on manuscript.
  • (n.) Charcoal dust, or some other colored powder for making patterns through perforated designs, -- used by embroiderers, lace makers, etc.
  • (v. t.) To sprinkle or rub with pounce; as, to pounce paper, or a pattern.
  • (v. t.) The claw or talon of a bird of prey.
  • (v. t.) A punch or stamp.
  • (v. t.) Cloth worked in eyelet holes.
  • (v. t.) To strike or seize with the talons; to pierce, as with the talons.
  • (v. t.) To punch; to perforate; to stamp holes in, or dots on, by way of ornament.
  • (v. i.) To fall suddenly and seize with the claws; -- with on or upon; as, a hawk pounces upon a chicken. Also used figuratively.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) At a dinner party, say, if ever you hear a person speak of a school for Islamic children, or Catholic children (you can read such phrases daily in newspapers), pounce: "How dare you?
  • (2) And then with nine minutes remaining Agüero was on hand to pounce again after Aaron Cresswell inadvertently diverted Kelechi Iheanacho’s driving run into his path.
  • (3) Lamine Koné pounced on a knockdown from Jan Kirchhoff in the penalty area, evaded a tackle and squared for the substitute to prod home from seven yards and prompt scenes of unbridled jubilation in the away end.
  • (4) Just a stepover here, a Cruyff turn there, and his opponent would be destroyed ... Only in real life, Boruc stumbled and bumbled and Olivier Giroud pounced to score.
  • (5) January is a favoured month for banks to pounce on struggling businesses, while their tills are still full with Christmas takings.
  • (6) Gekas saw a shot saved by Navas but the goalkeeper could only parry and Papastathopoulos pounced.
  • (7) BSkyB pounces on 17.9 per cent stake, at 135 pence per share, costing £920m, blocking a potential bid from Virgin.
  • (8) Throughout the testing period, the latency to play, as indicated by one rat pouncing on the opponent, was significantly higher in prenatally stressed than control rats.
  • (9) When he went on to begin a sentence with the words, "In my layman's understanding ... " Nel pounced and said: "You see, Mr Dixon, now you call yourself a layman."
  • (10) Vermaelen’s attempted clearance is scruffy, and Götze pounces on it and fires off an instant shot from 15 yards.
  • (11) Botín's father, Emilio, executive chairman of the Santander group, was behind the takeover of Abbey National in 2004 and pounced on Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley during the 2008 banking crisis, in deals much envied by rivals.
  • (12) This week, the Mail pounced on another frighteningly generic cause: sitting down.
  • (13) Sturridge raced down the right and attempted to lay the ball across to the unmarked Suárez but José Fonte stretched to poke the ball behind just as the Uruguayan prepared to pounce.
  • (14) Sanchez pounces and switches the ball inside to Vidal.
  • (15) His passing is sweet and it is really interesting how deceitful he can be: Rodríguez can look absent from the game but can pounce and catch his markers unaware.
  • (16) Perhaps for all of the potential upsides there are still too many opportunities to fall foul of “death and gaffe watch” journalists waiting to pounce on a too-easily-misconstrued twitter picture.
  • (17) Supremely confident – although not arrogant – Norway claim they are probably the tournament’s fittest team but Isabell Herlovsen swiftly emphasised she is quick as well as athletic after pouncing on a rare Carney error.
  • (18) PSG had won the away leg 2-1 despite Zlatan Ibrahimovic's sending off and seemed content to sit back in an uneventful first half but the match came to life 10 minutes into the second period when Valencia's Brazilian forward Jonas pounced on a loose ball to rifle home a fierce shot from outside the penalty area.
  • (19) As ever, he will be razor sharp, ready to dart and pounce at just the right time, come kick-off against Fulham at Craven Cottageon Saturday, hoping for another goal to add to his wall chart.
  • (20) Origi read the midfielder’s intentions quicker than any home defender and pounced on the ball, held off Piszczek on the edge of the area and steered a low shot back inside Weidenfeller’s right hand post.

Prance


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To spring or bound, as a horse in high mettle.
  • (v. i.) To ride on a prancing horse; to ride in an ostentatious manner.
  • (v. i.) To walk or strut about in a pompous, showy manner, or with warlike parade.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "There's this mistaken idea we were just prancing about in platform shoes and bare bums to go against the grain.
  • (2) Other signs included a short prancing gait with head tucked in a similar manner to that of a show pony.
  • (3) [Would] there by any objections to the Gay Gordons performing and prancing on that occasion too?” the MoD asked.
  • (4) In dogs delta 9-THC but not delta 9-11-THC produced classical cannabimimetic signs including static ataxia, hyperreflexia, prancing and tail-tuck.
  • (5) He served as ringmaster, prancing on and off stage as fellow presidential candidates, combat veterans and YouTube celebrities all took turns paying tribute both to Trump and those who have served in the US armed forces.
  • (6) You need to know a bit of marine mammal psychology: if you chase after them, they’ll treat you with disdain, but if you figure out what makes them tick, they’ll dance with you under water for hours, pirouetting and prancing around you in an intoxicating aquatic ballet.
  • (7) Xan Brooks Dance on your own like everybody's watching Lost River had Ben Mendelsohn frugging in pursuit of a frigging, In the Name of My Daughter played "African drums" and let star Adèle Haenel engage in some tribal two-step, and The Search saw a young Chechen refugee forget the murder of his parents by prancing around to the Bee Gees.
  • (8) He prances around his estate, abusing his slaves as though they're characters in a sadistic game of The Sims.
  • (9) The scientists include Sir Ghillean Prance, former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Thomas Lovejoy, chief biodiversity adviser to the president of the World Bank; Prof Omar R. Masera, director of the bioenergy lab at the National University of Mexico and Nobel laureate on behalf of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and others from Oxford, Stanford and Imperial College, London.
  • (10) A drummer called Martin Joyce and a bassist, whose name I couldn't remember, dragged my naked body through the undergrowth to a campfire where lawyers and record executives pranced, danced and tranced to a third rate David Bowie soundtrack.
  • (11) A petition set up by the group has more than 1,000 signatures , including Sir Ghillean Prance, former head of the world-renowned Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.
  • (12) Well, legendary German goalkeeper Sepp Maier clearly does now, as Timo Staudacher recalls: "On May 15 1976, during the Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and VfL Bochum, a duck landed close to Maier's goal and started prancing about the six-yard box.
  • (13) Dario Fo has been prancing around dressed as a short, fat Silvio Berlusconi every night this week, in front of a roaring Roman audience.
  • (14) China must let those prancing provocateurs know how much of a price they pay when they deliberately rile us.
  • (15) Prince continues to prance around London like the Pied Piper, drawing faithfully queuing hordes this way and that.
  • (16) Getting out your phone to show your date a hilarious YouTube video of prancing pygmy goats (everyone does this, right?)
  • (17) Outside the Congress Center in Etobicoke, a western suburb of Toronto, a man with a demon mask pranced in the street holding a sign that said “Welcome to Harperland”.
  • (18) He has an onstage fool, Jacky, who dances and prances wearing Auschwitz-style pyjamas, complete with yellow star.
  • (19) Cue tears on the pitch and much laughter from the visiting fans, who had witnessed thousands of idiots prancing around, only to collectively fall to their knees as the news spread."
  • (20) The dancers fearlessly responded to the acute violence of the previous night’s events by prancing and voguing .