Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use arch in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb, adjective

Arch means an inverted U shape. Example: “The cat arched its back.”

Examples of arch by meaning

nounAny place covered by an arch; an archway.

  • to pass into the arch of a bridge

verbTo form into an arch shape.

  • The cat arched its back.
  • Whichever it is, you can be forgiven for arching an eyebrow at an infrastructure company being placed in overall control.2024 March 6, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Who will run our railways?”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 3

adjectiveKnowing, clever, mischievous.

  • I attempted to hide my emotions, but an arch remark escaped my lips.
  • A certain melancholy that touched her countenance must have been of recent birth, for it had not yet altered the fine and youthful contours of her cheek, nor subdued the arch though resolute curve of her lips.1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “By Courier”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC
  • Jane blushed and made arch eyes at him.1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 3, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC

adjectivePrincipal; primary.

  • They were arch enemies.
  • Challenger the super scientist, Challenger the arch-pioneer, Challenger the first man of all men whom Mother Earth had been compelled to recognize.1928 February 25 – March 3, Arthur Conan Doyle, “When the World Screamed”, in The Professor Challenger Stories […], London: John Murray...

nounAn architecture; a computer architecture or instruction set architecture.

  • In the Linux kernel, arch-specific code lives in the arch directory of the source tree.

More sentences with arch

  • As the rise, i.e. height, of the arch decreases, the outward thrust increases.From the entry rise
  • A laminated arch is a timber arch made of layers of bent planks secured by treenails.From the entry laminated
  • They sprung an arch over the lintel.From the entry spring
  • The arches spring from the front posts.From the entry spring
  • The brick arch was built using a wooden former.From the entry former
  • Arches, loops, and whorls are patterns found in fingerprints.From the entry loop
  • Organized by the Tourism Administration, the Taiwan pavilion featured the famous rainbow arch from Kaohsiung’s Cijin District.2025 February 24, “Taiwan waves”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2025, Taiwan News, page 3. From the entry Cijin
  • Asphyxiating arches catch the breath And numb the senses of all who sought the lost prize.2024, Nishant Gang, It Happens: Navigating Life's Unpredictable Journey, page 25. From the entry asphyxiating
  • Faced with metallic bubble-pink leather and designed with an elegant arch, they’ll satisfy any material girl.2022 June 8, Gennady Oreshkin, “Some Like It Hot”, in Prestige Hong Kong. From the entry bubble-pink
  • Coppola underscores the women’s attempts to gussy up with snippets of arch dialogue.2017 June 30, Ruth La Ferla, “In ‘The Beguiled,’ Pretty Confections Whipped Up to Seduce”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the…. From the entry gussy up
  • She tried to make this sound hipsterishly arch and mocking, but she wanted to know.2014, Brian Morton, Florence Gordon. From the entry hipsterishly
  • Plastic wheel arch extensions.cars; a wooden wheel and walnut gearknob were available as dealer options.2011, Jeremy Clarkson, Round the Bend, →ISBN. From the entry gearknob
  • The arc-shaped Mazartag Mountains, located between the Hotan and Yarkand (Ye’erqiang) river valleys, arch toward the southwest.2011, “Major and Other Notable Deserts of the World”, in John P. Rafferty, editor, Deserts and Steppes, 1st edition, Encyclopedia…. From the entry Mazartag
  • That would be the end of the golden arches, I'm sure of it.2010, Michele A. Jordan, The BLT Cookbook, Harper Collins, →ISBN, pages 5–6. From the entry BLT
  • On the other side of the courtyard, big arches opened into the kitchens.2010, Barbara D’Amato, chapter 56, in Other Eyes, New York, N.Y.: Forge, published January 2011, →ISBN, page 348. From the entry spit-roaster
  • Brows should be sculpted, but not severe (no overplucking), with a high arch.2009 January 8, Laura Holson, “Working Toward Veronica Lake”, in New York Times. From the entry overpluck
  • Not even the windscreen-wipers interrupt the smoothness of the lines arching back through the low-pitched, coupe-style windscreen.2006 April 11, Giles Smith, “Never mind the obscurity of the badge”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News &…. From the entry windscreen-wiper
  • More fluid gooshed forth, arching beautifully and descending to strike Prior's arm.2002, Piers Anthony, Pornucopia. From the entry goosh
  • Over the small ferns, the high and pale-green hapuʻu arch twenty-five and thirty feet.1997, James D. Houston, In the Ring of Fire: A Pacific Basin Journey, San Francisco, Calif.: Mercury House, →ISBN, page 121. From the entry hapuʻu
  • Arches above the windows outlined with double courses of raised scrollwork headmolds, edged in gold.1993, Retta Lou Weber, Gayle Weber Strange, Lively stones: a history of the people who built First Presbyterian Church, Galveston, Texas…. From the entry headmold
  • The massive bricks and low arches of this hall make it dungeonlike, even ovenlike.1988 January 29, Kitry Krause, “Casting Out the Nazis”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry ovenlike
  • Her teeth sank into his lips, he felt the sweet galbe of her flanks and arching back.1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1123. From the entry galbe
  • Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches.1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. From the entry meme
  • Use wax as an underbrow cleanup and always tweeze for the shaping or arching you need.1976, Diane Von Furstenberg, Evelyn Portrait, Diane Von Furstenberg's Book of Beauty, page 157. From the entry underbrow
  • Arch., all periods, anthrohistory, history of smoking & early smoking pipes.1965 December, “Associates in Current Anthropology”, in Current Anthropology, volume 6, number 5, page 625. From the entry anthrohistory
  • Portions of these arches are obliterated to form the normally described aorta and great vessels.1959 September, F. Ronald Edwards, “Vascular Compression of the Trachea and Oesophagus”, in N[orman] R[upert] Barrett, J[ohn] G[uyett]…. From the entry obliterate
  • The carnivora are the gangsters round here, but man is still the arch criminal—Public Enemy Number One.1957, Joy Packer, “Something to Fear”, in The Moon by Night: A Novel, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J. B. Lippincott Company, →OCLC…. From the entry carnivora
  • The chains are secured to each end of the cast-iron arches by cotters.1949 November and December, “Notes and News: The High Level Bridge, Newcastle”, in Railway Magazine, page 407. From the entry cotter
  • The arch failed first at the crown, then at the quarterings, and finally at the springings.1941 February, “Bridge demolition by lifting”, in Railway Magazine, page 74. From the entry crown
  • Masonry flying arches strutting the retaining walls in Chorley cutting, Manchester-Blackpool line, L.M.S.R.1939 November, “Pertinent Paragraphs”, in Railway Magazine, page 358, photo caption. From the entry strut
  • Outside of the deep internal visceral arches are the extravisceral cartilages.1928, D. J. Frank, The elasmobranch fishes, page 67. From the entry extrabranchial

Meaning of arch

  1. noun An inverted U shape.
  2. noun An arch-shaped arrangement of trapezoidal stones, designed to redistribute downward force outward.
  3. noun An architectural element having the shape of an arch.

Full definition of arch

Questions about arch in a sentence

How do you use arch in a sentence?
Arch is used as a noun, verb and adjective. For example: “The cat arched its back.”
What is a short sentence with arch?
“They were arch enemies.”
What does arch mean?
Arch means an inverted U shape.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arch (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use arch in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/arch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.