What's the difference between puerile and silly?

Puerile


Definition:

  • (a.) Boyish; childish; trifling; silly.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Dismissing the Socialists' censure motion threat as "puerile", Rajoy said: "I came [to parliament] to halt the erosion of Spain's image."
  • (2) I find them puerile and mildly offensive, but I'm not precious and accept that in predominantly male work environments, they are going to go on.
  • (3) The positive case for remaining in the EU will also be made by the Scottish National party’s foreign affairs spokesman, Alex Salmond , on Monday, when he will condemn the warnings about the risks of Brexit as, “at best puerile and at worst outlandish scaremongering”.
  • (4) Many tweeters noted the trend whereby (according to Simon Guerrero) "Channel 4 use offensive programme names but say, 'Well *they* are OK with it...'" In the Telegraph , meanwhile, the film critic Scott Jordan Harris, who is disabled, argued that "making a show just to say that disabled people should be allowed to be funny is ridiculously outdated … All [I'm Spazticus] proves is that we disabled people can be just as a mean-spirited, puerile and unfunny as the able-bodied."
  • (5) It is six years, after all, since 2009, the year in which the comedian’s blossoming career and reputation took an abrupt and savage hit, thanks to his unloved eponymous sketch show with Gavin & Stacey co-star Mathew Horne (“ puerile and excruciating ”, according to the New Statesman), a critically mauled movie, Lesbian Vampire Killers (“a witless mess”, said the Telegraph), and a calamitous performance hosting the Brit awards with Horne, which even Corden has acknowledged was “shit, because of ego”.
  • (6) When the circumstances and judgments change, it is best to admit to it and change as well.” In his first Commons confrontation with Osborne as shadow chancellor, McDonnell called the charter “a puerile political trap”.
  • (7) But Moran is far more than a puerile obsession with large underwear.
  • (8) Calling all that dangerous socialism may not resonate with most voters, so how, beyond puerile abuse, do the Tories oppose it without looking like defenders of vested interests?
  • (9) Elsewhere, Twisted Loaf are operating in comparably dark if far less puerile territory.
  • (10) The Republican convention has, thus far, been a puerile, empty spectacle featuring washed-up actors, reality TV stars, and belligerent, shameless politicians.
  • (11) But having kids reconnects you to comedy's more puerile end.
  • (12) (I've observed this on previous occasions and wonder if something puerile, something mockingly unpleasant, is written on the agency's system next to my name – the bearer of this passport has a small cock?)
  • (13) Some viewers said the commentators were "puerile and hyperactive".
  • (14) Most offensive, however, was the lameness of the entire endeavour, which would not only fail to inspire even the most puerile of would-be voters, but failed to give any reason for participating in the democratic process more sophisticated than "it might affect the amount of cinnamon in your Danish pastry" and "because you might get twatted".
  • (15) The former attorney general Dominic Grieve, who was presumably sacked in the summer reshuffle so that these plans could go ahead, is right to describe them as “almost puerile”.
  • (16) In 1984, he indulged in a riot of puerile name-calling.
  • (17) Sadowitz's impotent fury, Silverman's preppy naivety, Capurro's puerility – all of these comics reduce their status vis-a-vis the audience and ensure that the jokes bounce back on them.
  • (18) Female or male pubic hair, meager or normal axillary hair, sparse facial hair, and puerile penile type are characteristic of asthenozoospermia.
  • (19) Cheap but oddly charming for all its puerile sexism, Purple Rain was the pop sensation of the year, its soundtrack album shifting over 18 million copies and keeping 'When Doves Cry' at number one for six weeks.
  • (20) Effectively, what we are doing is turning Strasbourg into an advisory body.” Dominic Grieve , the former attorney general who was removed at the last reshuffle, told the Guardian the proposals were “almost puerile”.

Silly


Definition:

  • (n.) Happy; fortunate; blessed.
  • (n.) Harmless; innocent; inoffensive.
  • (n.) Weak; helpless; frail.
  • (n.) Rustic; plain; simple; humble.
  • (n.) Weak in intellect; destitute of ordinary strength of mind; foolish; witless; simple; as, a silly woman.
  • (n.) Proceeding from want of understanding or common judgment; characterized by weakness or folly; unwise; absurd; stupid; as, silly conduct; a silly question.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We just hope that … maybe she’s gone to see her friend, talk some sense into her,” Renu said, adding that Shamima “knew that it was a silly thing to do” and that she did not know why her friend had done it.
  • (2) And Myers is cautioned after a silly block 3.21am GMT 54 mins Besler with a long-throw for SKC but it's cleared.
  • (3) As if to prove her silly dilettantism, when a journalist asked Dasha about her favourite artists, she replied, "I'm, like, really bad at remembering names."
  • (4) Some of them, pulled together for the manifesto, are silly, or doomed, or simply there for shock value - information points in the form of holograms of Dixon of Dock Green, the legalisation of soft drugs, official brothels opposite Westminster, complete with division bells.
  • (5) I am of a similar vintage and, like many friends and fans of the series, bemoan the fact that we are generally treated by society as silly, weak, daft, soppy, prejudiced (even bigoted), risk-averse and wary of new situations.
  • (6) I had more fun with Matt Winning , delivering a silly set on the Free Fringe imagining himself the son of Robert Mugabe.
  • (7) Facebook Twitter Pinterest In an essay for the Hollywood Reporter, Camille Paglia writes that Swift promotes a ‘silly, regressive public image’.
  • (8) His selection on Twitter, he added, was “all in no particular order, off the top of my head, and the most incomplete of lists”, put together in response to Talese’s “silliness”.
  • (9) As soon as they saw how serious it was, they switched from being my silly, fun friends into being the most reliable and amazing people.
  • (10) They were all young, and it was a party house, devoted to games of hide and seek, music, silly practical jokes and food fights in the drawing room.
  • (11) As a result, one or two wrote some rather silly things in their reports,” Wilshaw said.
  • (12) ‘Silly things said by a silly man’ To be honest I really don’t care what BoJo says.
  • (13) People usually don't make silly, careless mistakes when they're motivated and working in a positive environment.
  • (14) Watching “our lads” pretending to mouth questionable lyrics about God giving the Queen near-immortal life, and her being the victor when she’s not really of fighting age, is silly.
  • (15) Imagine my relief this week then, when I found out that I can now let go of all my silly gay politics.
  • (16) We have referees who are unfamiliar with that silly "Goaltender Interference" technicality.
  • (17) The syndrome he described--a psychosis of early onset with a deteriorating course characterized by a "silly" affect, behavioral peculiarities, and formal thought disorder--not only adumbrated Kraepelin's generic category of dementia praecox but quite specifically defined the later subtype of hebephrenic, or disorganized, schizophrenia as well.
  • (18) "But they're so silly that I must say I never found them intimidating."
  • (19) Just as certain songs become inextricably associated in our minds with certain eras (before the invention of iPods, that is, after which everyone could walk around every day with all the songs in the world on shuffle), so too do silly trends.
  • (20) In 2014, she began working as a writer at Late Night with Seth Meyers; her first standup spot on that show began with a joke that typified both her silliness and confidence.