What's the difference between vagary and whim?

Vagary


Definition:

  • (n.) A wandering or strolling.
  • (n.) Hence, a wandering of the thoughts; a wild or fanciful freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Dictated by underlying physicochemical constraints, deceived at times by the lulling tones of the siren entropy, and constantly vulnerable to the vagaries of other more pervasive forms of biological networking and information transfer encoded in the genes of virus and invading microorganisms, protein biorecognition in higher life forms, and particularly in mammals, represents the finely tuned molecular avenues for the genome to transfer its information to the next generation.
  • (2) Psychiatry is criticized for imprecise diagnosis, conceptual vagaries, jargon, therapeutic impotence and class bias.
  • (3) The issue of generic equivalence of topical steroids is discussed, with particular emphasis on the vagaries of the vasoconstriction assay.
  • (4) During the past 5-year period from 1986 to 1991, a total of 54 patients received living-related renal allograft and has been managed with vagaries of cyclosporin A (CYA) immunosuppressive regimen.
  • (5) Tsakalotos believes the anti-austerity government speaks for the growing numbers across Europe who, subjected to the brutal vagaries of the market, feel excluded from decision-making.
  • (6) To attempt less would allow this country's health care system to go down any road the vagaries of our political process take it.
  • (7) "You should look at it as a hedge against the vagaries."
  • (8) When employed in the direct imaging of chemiluminescent blots, the charge-coupled device can provide equal or better sensitivity than that obtained by indirect methods using film, with the additional advantages of wide dynamic range and freedom from the vagaries of film processing.
  • (9) It was ever thus for the Kurds, their destiny as a people shaped less by their own struggles than by the vagaries of regional and international politics, particularly the great Middle Eastern upheavals they periodically produce.
  • (10) It must be conceded, however, that with the vagaries of human nature there is always likely to be greater morbidity from patients with hypothyroidism failing to take their medication regularly, than from failure by the medical attendant to make minor adjustments to the dose of thyroxine.
  • (11) When I play Minecraft with Zac he gets to explain to me the vagaries and complexities of his saved kingdoms – the traps he has built, the hidden boltholes beneath looming mountains, the crops he has planted, the eggs he has nurtured, the places he goes, the things he sees.
  • (12) The vagaries of clinical staging associated with stage A disease, as well as the previously documented progression on long-term followup (8 to 10 years) in younger (60 years old or less) patients with stage A1 prostate cancer make radical prostatectomy with its limited morbidity an acceptable treatment choice.
  • (13) The response has been to force the vagaries of clinical judgment into the programmatic algorithm.
  • (14) The major cause of discrepent results with periodic cultures was attributed to vagaries in sampling.
  • (15) Combine that with having to work two jobs, make his own lunch and rely on the vagaries of public transport, and he gets three hours' sleep a night.
  • (16) Future pensioners will also suffer – as millions of employees have shifted into "defined contribution" pension plans – dependent on the vagaries of the stock market.
  • (17) The vagaries of events, people, and places leading to the scientific review are described.
  • (18) This report outlines the experience of one center in establishing a group therapy program, discussing the "readiness" of the center, reservations of the governing board, qualifications and number of group leaders, composition of the group, time-place-duration of meetings, "open" versus "closed" structure, vagaries of obtaining participants, integration with the 24-hour telephone crisis service, problems of confidentiality, and dealing with the suicide of a group member.
  • (19) In this setting the importance of the condition lies in the vagaries of its presentation and the fact that it is eminently treatable, usually by a combination of chemotherapy and surgery.
  • (20) The difficulty in articulating a clear response to Brexit, for example, stems from the absence of common instincts on the best approach to immigration, free trade, markets, and on protecting people from the economic vagaries of globalisation without retreating into bitter rejection of the modern world.

Whim


Definition:

  • (n.) The European widgeon.
  • (n.) A sudden turn or start of the mind; a temporary eccentricity; a freak; a fancy; a capricious notion; a humor; a caprice.
  • (n.) A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes; -- called also whim gin, and whimsey.
  • (v. i.) To be subject to, or indulge in, whims; to be whimsical, giddy, or freakish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A group called Campaign for Houston , which led the opposition, described the ordinance as “an attack on the traditional family” designed for “gender-confused men who … can call themselves ‘women’ on a whim”.
  • (2) If we’re going to change the model, we can’t just do it on a whim of government or the people who design these courses.” What he does like about Think Ahead is that participants will be doing “proper social work”, even if, in his view, they will be unprepared for the task.
  • (3) The previous Ba’athist and Shia governments tried to deviate the Muslim generation from their path through their educational programmes that concord with their governments and political whims.
  • (4) Your whims are Benji's command, readers – tell us where to go!
  • (5) Instead it amounts to exploitation, decided at the whim of a Jobcentre Plus adviser."
  • (6) The only thing she wouldn't do was We Shall Overcome, too sacred to perform on a whim she tells me when I meet her later, besides which - and here she giggles - "we probably won't overcome.
  • (7) I’m probably the hardest bandleader to work for, but I do it for love.” His band have rehearsed around 300 songs, from which Prince can choose at whim, which makes playing live more fun that it used to be.
  • (8) But its purchase and use relies on satisfying personal whim, prejudice or educational fashion, not on considerations of educational efficiency.
  • (9) Journalists who work here are not part of the press pack who must always keep one eye looking over their shoulder at their proprietor’s political whims – on business, on taxation or the European Union.
  • (10) If your reforms are a matter of ideology, legacy, whim and faith, then, like many of your predecessors, you could simply say so, and leave "evidence" to people who mean it.
  • (11) During the local election campaign Farage has also jettisoned, seemingly on his whim, longstanding policies such as a flat rate of tax.
  • (12) The very things that give small charities their allure can also be their greatest limitations Having been managed by a founder in three out of my four major jobs, and working closely with one in the fourth, I have lived out all the symptoms: ad-hoc practices with no systems and processes, unilateral decisions at the whim of the founder, a resistance to professionalising and losing the personal touch, and a way of working that revolves entirely around one person because the assumption is that this immortal personality will be around forever.
  • (13) It isn’t a whim of Thea’s not to go back to the classroom.
  • (14) Significant peptide release occurred only when B15 was stimulated at high frequency or at lower frequencies with a relatively long burst duration (Whim and Lloyd, 1989).
  • (15) He has been right too often in this tournament for it to be down to random chance, to the whims of the gods and to be about anything but cold logic, a huge ego and a steely, steely nerve.
  • (16) We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord ... in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias, in those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands.” 7) Being rivals or boastful.
  • (17) That’s before fuel, water, food and tips for the crew, who will cater to the guests’ every whim as the yacht hops from Sardinia to Monaco to Greece or, during the winter, the Caribbean.
  • (18) But while both of us were at their whim, I pointed out that it was he, not security, who had notified Special Branch.
  • (19) Yet the choice of who should be employed as counselors is based on little more than personal whims of decision makers.
  • (20) Martin Donnelly, permanent secretary of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), did not just wake up one morning and, on a whim, write a lengthy and carefully argued defence of the old Whitehall verities.