What's the difference between telling and zinger?

Telling


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Tell
  • (a.) Operating with great effect; effective; as, a telling speech.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Michael James, 52, from Tower Hamlets Three days after telling his landlord that the flat upstairs was a deathtrap, Michael James was handed an eviction notice.
  • (2) In platform shoes to emulate Johnson's height, and with the aid of prosthetic earlobes, Cranston becomes the 36th president: he bullies and cajoles, flatters and snarls and barks, tells dirty jokes or glows with idealism as required, and delivers the famous "Johnson treatment" to everyone from Martin Luther King to the racist Alabama governor George Wallace.
  • (3) Today’s figures tell us little about the timing of the first increase in interest rates, which will depend on bigger picture news on domestic growth, pay trends and perceived downside risks in the global economy,” he said.
  • (4) Anytime they feel parts of the Basic Law are not up to their current standards of political correctness, they will change it and tell Hong Kong courts to obey.
  • (5) "With hyperspectral imaging, you can tell the chemical content of a cake just by taking a photo of it.
  • (6) I think he had been saying all season that with three or four games to go he will tell us where we are.
  • (7) I can see you use humour as a defence mechanism, so in return I could just tell you that if he's massively rich or famous and you've decided you'll put up with it to please him, you'll eventually discover it's not worth it.
  • (8) Are you ready to vote?” is the battle cry, and even the most superficial of glances at the statistics tells why.
  • (9) But what they take for a witticism might very well be true; most of Ellis's novels tell more or less the same story, about the same alienated ennui, and maybe they really are nothing more than the fictionalised diaries of an unremarkably unhappy man.
  • (10) On Friday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry appeared to confirm those fears, telling reporters that the joint declaration, a deal negotiated by London and Beijing guaranteeing Hong Kong’s way of life for 50 years, “was a historical document that no longer had any practical significance”.
  • (11) Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tried to liven things up, but there are only so many ways to tell us to be nice to chickens.
  • (12) David Hamilton tells me: “The days of westerners leading expeditions to Nepal will pass.
  • (13) If Del Bosque really want to win this World Cup thingymebob, then he has got to tell Iker Casillas that the jig is up, correct?
  • (14) Will African film-makers tell those kind of films differently?
  • (15) July 7, 2016 Verified account A blue tick that tells you the user is either an A-list celebrity, a respected authority on an important subject or a BuzzFeed employee.
  • (16) The education secretary's wife, Sarah Vine, a columnist, said her son William, nine, and daughter Beatrice, 11, now realise how much their father is hated for his position in government because other children tell them in the playground.
  • (17) You can tell them that Deutsche Bank remains absolutely rock solid, given our strong capital and risk position.
  • (18) The debate certainly hit upon a larger issue: the tendency for people in positions of social and cultural power to tell the stories of minorities for them, rather than allowing minority communities to speak for themselves.
  • (19) In saying what he did, he was not telling any frequent flyer something they didn't already know, and he was not protesting about any newly adopted measures.
  • (20) Blight responded with a hypothetical, telling Ludlam if the ASD asked a foreign agency to get material about Australian citizens it could not access under Australian law, the IGIS would know about it and flag it in its annual report.

Zinger


Definition:

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Reportedly, her teleprompter conked out, inadvertently taking thousands of fresh “Obama Teleprompter” jokes with it, so she ad libbed, ultimately going 10 minutes over her allotted time while hurling out rewarmed zingers and bewildering anecdotes.
  • (2) "Trickle down government ... is not the answer for America," is obviously one of the famous Mitt Romney Zingers that we have promised.
  • (3) Still, Farage poses a few rhetorical questions and, as he seems to seek rational discussion instead of comic zingers, so I am happy to answer them here seriously.
  • (4) You decided to stay home and that’s OK.” But Clinton had a zinger up her sleeve: “I think Donald just criticised me for preparing for this debate.
  • (5) Although this zinger owes its origins to the fact that Thatcher's gag-writer, Sir Ronald Millar, happened to be a dramatist of the Fry generation, he could expect that the reference would be understood by a significant proportion of the press and the electorate.
  • (6) He started telling his own variation on the classic in March 2014, and today he delivered his own zinger: Ta-da!
  • (7) In a tetchy BBC Question Time encounter with Ukip’s Nigel Farage , it was Brand who produced the zinger, with the jibe that his opponent was “a pound-shop Enoch Powell ”.
  • (8) The story of the Grantham family has reached 1924, and, according to Mrs Hughes, “Downton is catching up with the times we live in.” “That is exactly what I’m afraid of,” replies Carson, suggesting yet more resistance to impending modernity – which, of course, means plenty of opportunity for baffled zingers from the Dowager Countess.
  • (9) It’s about a set of principles.” He acknowledged his shortcomings, however, by running through the long list of advice he has received of late: some stylistic, like removing his glasses or changing his tie, and some more strategic: “Nail that zinger.
  • (10) That latter detail unfortunately undermined some of the hilarity of the Snapchat zinger, since complying with a law enforcement directive about which you really have no choice isn’t really that funny.
  • (11) He saves a zinger for the planted follow us, accusing the ALP of " inter generational theft " 5.14am BST Abbott's third motion of indulgence to acknowledge the death of Paul Ramsay who is described as the creator of a "mighty business empire, but he never lost his soul".
  • (12) They had seen him, heard the zingers, taken a picture or two, and now they were heading to the parking lot, to get a head start on the traffic.
  • (13) You can focus on how things look and how they played and who won the zinger-off rather than on the underlying issues.
  • (14) Glenn looks pleased until Hollywood hits him with an under-baked zinger.
  • (15) As the candidates deliver their zingers, you can take their words and create your own debate lines.
  • (16) Updated at 8.38am GMT 8.32am GMT First set: Djokovic 1-1 Wawrinka* (*denotes server) Wawrinka starts with a 217km ace, followed by a zinger that Djokovic connects with but can't control.
  • (17) Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) Romney walked into that pension zinger.
  • (18) Obama: While the president generally struggled to get his "zingers" across, over-larding them with too much detail, he did get in a pithy dig about Romney's vague budget proposals which he claimed didn't add up.
  • (19) Updated at 8.07pm BST 8.00pm BST The Guardian will be live blogging tonight's debate, starting in a few hours, at which point we will subject you to, among others, these shady characters: Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) "Can I use my zinger now?"
  • (20) Clearly, the early word that Romney would offer "zingers" was a misdirection, as he avoided most cutesy or canned lines.