✅ 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).

✅ Pan means to criticize something thoroughly or completely in some sort of published form (If I’d known that critics were going to pan my performance, I wouldn’t have made the movie).

✅ Roast means to ridicule or criticize someone or something mercilessly (The actor was known to roast his own characters).

✅ Pan and roast are both informal terms used to refer to criticizing something.

✅ Pan suggests a public criticism, especially in a review (Reviewers panned the movie, but audiences loved it). Roast suggests making fun of something or someone, especially in a critical way (My friends and I roast each other for fun).