✅ Frill refers to extra things that make something look cool or fancy. Frill is often plural and commonly used in the phrase ‘no frills’ (an efficient no-frills design).

✅ Frippery refers to empty, over-the-top displays or things done for display (I didn’t like all the frippery on the gown).

✅ Both frill and frippery are used negatively or dismissively to refer to useless things that are used just for effect or to make something look better than it really is (The movie looks good, but it’s all frill and no substance; She loved frippery in her clothes but not in her home decor).

✅ A pawn is someone who is used by someone else, generally in order to further a cause or plot that the person being used is unaware of (I was a pawn in my friend’s plan to get time off work).

✅ A puppet is a person or group of people whose actions are being controlled by another person or another group of people (The king was a puppet, controlled by his advisor).

✅ Pawn suggests being used or manipulated, but not necessarily controlled, while puppet suggests being controlled, but not necessarily manipulated.

✅ Punch means to hit something or someone with a closed fist (I punch my friends gently in the shoulder to say hello).

✅ Sock means to hit something or someone particularly hard, generally with a closed fist (The superhero socked the villain in the face).

✅ Punch is a more general word. Sock is more evocative and dramatic.

✅ Punch can refer to a gentle or friendly hit, whereas sock always suggests a hard hit, especially one which knocks someone down or sends them reeling (The boxer really socked her opponent).