What's the difference between vile and villain?

Vile


Definition:

  • (superl.) Low; base; worthless; mean; despicable.
  • (superl.) Morally base or impure; depraved by sin; hateful; in the sight of God and men; sinful; wicked; bad.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Those behind it have once again taken the law into their own hands and dispensed a vile form of rough justice.
  • (2) The deputy prime minister branded the treatment meted out to the four-year-old by his mother, Magdelena Luczak, and stepfather, Mariusz Krezolek, as evil and vile, but suggested it was up to the whole of society to stop such tragedies.
  • (3) Charlie Morris described the column as "vile and disgusting", adding that she hoped the writer "gets the sack".
  • (4) In China, where the Communist party has always determined which news is fit to print, authorities have ordered internet portals to abandon original reporting on political or social topics because of its “ extremely vile effect ”.
  • (5) The massacre was not committed by "the Poles" against "the Jews", but was a vile crime committed by specific individuals.
  • (6) Daryush 'Roosh V' Valizadeh cancels neo-masculinist meetings over safety Read more Roosh and company encountered such uniform hostility because their views are ostentatiously vile.
  • (7) Much porn is samey and some is utterly vile, full of torture, faeces, urine, vomit and blood and the utter degradation of women who become nothing but a series of orifices.
  • (8) Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn claimed the results so far illustrated that the Conservatives’ “vile campaign” had backfired .
  • (9) This whole vile outpouring may just be par for the course in the wilds of social media.
  • (10) I did, though, have my suspicions that the perpetrator of this vile assault was Dolge Orlick, Joe's journeyman apprentice.
  • (11) The description “whorephobic” is usually reserved for feminists who speak or campaign against the liberalisation of the laws on sex work, who dream of a world where this huge, vile industry doesn’t exist.
  • (12) It is true in both cases that secrecy helps to protect some truly vile criminals, terrorists and paedophiles.
  • (13) It was not that he could not play good guys; rather that he excelled at locating the virtues in the apparently vile.
  • (14) Jowell said: "Harriet Harman would have nothing to do with the vile rubbish of an organisation like PIE," adding: "I don't want anyone to think this present frenzy about Harriet, the NCCL and the Daily Mail attack on her is in any way explained by that was then and this is now."
  • (15) Last year the country's most senior judge said only "extremely vile criminals" were executed in 2007 as a result of "kill fewer, kill carefully" reforms that gave the supreme court the right to overturn capital sentences handed down by lower courts.
  • (16) You need locking up.” Vardy posted a screenshot of the threats with the words “shocking and vile”.
  • (17) "That is why I believe George Osborne's calculated decision to use the shocking and vile crimes of Mick Philpott to advance a political argument is the cynical act of a desperate chancellor.
  • (18) Vile stuff – but the Nazi attitude to modern art may have been radically misunderstood.
  • (19) "They will not further any aim or objective by their vile and callous deeds.
  • (20) Vile returned to Philadelphia and enrolled at a community college.

Villain


Definition:

  • (n.) One who holds lands by a base, or servile, tenure, or in villenage; a feudal tenant of the lowest class, a bondman or servant.
  • (n.) A baseborn or clownish person; a boor.
  • (n.) A vile, wicked person; a man extremely depraved, and capable or guilty of great crimes; a deliberate scoundrel; a knave; a rascal; a scamp.
  • (a.) Villainous.
  • (v. t.) To debase; to degrade.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But I know the full story and it’s a bit different from what people see.” The full story is heavy on the extremes of emotion and as the man who took a stricken but much-loved club away from its community, Winkelman knows that his part is that of villain; the war of words will rumble on.
  • (2) They’re not moustache-twirling villains that are going, “ah ha ha that’s great”, they’re going: “You’re right.
  • (3) Society needs a villain and right now we’re convenient.” “ I will carefully admit there has been an awful lot of almonds planted that maybe shouldn’t have been because outside money came in and wanted to plant,” he says.
  • (4) Reith, “his dour handsome face scarred like that of a villain in a melodrama”, was “a strange shepherd for such a mixed, bohemian flock … he had under his aegis a bevy of ex-soldiers, ex-actors, ex-adventurers which … even a Dartmoor prison governor might have had difficulty in controlling”.
  • (5) The success of Capote paved the way for bigger and more nuanced parts for Hoffman, his turn as the villain in Mission: Impossible III (2006) notwithstanding.
  • (6) Maleficent, Disney's latest film out on 28 May, offers the untold back story of the villain from the 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty, with Jolie in the title role.
  • (7) When I was nine or 10 I leapt directly from Doctor Dolittle to Dr No, leaving behind all those stupid talking animals and free-falling into a far naughtier realm of suavely promiscuous government assassins, hot shell-diving beauties and villains with metal hands and messianic plans for humanity.
  • (8) And that’s what we do in drama and comedy: we create our own heroes and villains, so no one really gets hurt.
  • (9) You're a devious villain conducting the perfect crime, like the dashing guest star in the opening scene of a classic Columbo.
  • (10) These villains have limited aspirations, and the man in the white hat has a limited arsenal of era-appropriate weaponry: a gun, a bow and arrow, a few grenades, maybe even a tank.
  • (11) The people shaping the news require a very simple story – they have to be angels and villains.” John Stoltenberg is a gay-rights activist who lived with the feminist writer Andrea Dworkin until her death in 2005.
  • (12) We are not the villains you paint us on your trollblogs.
  • (13) For the real villain – look behind Obama, to the Republican party.
  • (14) It is, according to environmentalist and MP Zac Goldsmith, the most dramatic turnaround of any global green villain ever seen and an encouraging sign that huge environmental challenges can be tackled.
  • (15) As Paltrow explains: “So-called pro-life measures are being used in ways that not only violate women’s reproductive rights, but create the basis for depriving them of their constitutional personhood and human rights.” While it may be easy to cast women who drink in pregnancy as villains, criminalising them does no one any favours, save for those with a broader anti-women agenda.
  • (16) Fleming was intrigued by Engelhard's extravagant lifestyle and when he wrote Goldfinger , published in 1959, he based its eponymous villain on him.
  • (17) In the Kenzie and Gennaro series, like all good detective fiction, the city is as sharp and unpredictable as the villains themselves.
  • (18) Why swapping heroes for heroines is a Top Dollar idea Read more The potential gender-swap casting comes after Britain’s Andrea Riseborough was named earlier this month as a frontrunner to play the villain Top Dollar in a high-profile upcoming remake of cult comic book movie The Crow.
  • (19) Mohammed al-Sabban Senior economic adviser, Saudi Arabia Moustachioed high-up in his country's ministry of petroleum and mineral resources, leader of the Saudi Arabian negotiating team, and a reasonable bet for Copenhagen's most likely villain.
  • (20) For one thing, villains always believe they are exceptional.

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