Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use brandish in a sentence

28 example sentences · verb, noun

Brandish means to move or swing a weapon back and forth, particularly if demonstrating anger, threat or skill. Example: “He brandished his sword at the pirates.”

Examples of brandish by meaning

verbTo move or swing a weapon back and forth, particularly if demonstrating anger, threat or skill.

  • He brandished his sword at the pirates.

verbTo bear something with ostentatious show.

  • to brandish syllogisms
  • It sets the stage for cutting corners in our principles just so we can brandish a perceived badge of stature.2011, Jejomar C. Binay, Binay: Blame corruption on modern consumerism, Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation...

More sentences with brandish

  • The robber brandished a forty-five at the cashier to make her empty the till for him.From the entry forty-five
  • The warrior brandished a pointed spear.From the entry pointed
  • Then he asked if anyone wanted to dispute this assertion (he brandishing his revolver the while) and was answered by peaceful snorings.From the entry snoring
  • Now Prossiden's finger was brandished, and preened the air in front of Onascam's face with florid implications.2019, J.E. Franklin, Crouching at the Door. From the entry preen
  • He brandishes a can of deodorant (deo) spray as he says this, grinning all the time.2014, Damodar Mall, Supermarketwala: Secrets To Winning Consumer India. From the entry deo
  • On his bas-reliefs and plaques, allegorical, stylized, and muscular heroes break their chains and brandish large swords.2010, François Lagarde, The French in Texas: History, Migration, Culture. From the entry lionesque
  • When threatened, a tamandua may sit up on its hind legs and brandish its sharp curved claws.1999, John C. Kricher, A Neotropical Companion: An Introduction to the Animals, Plants, and Ecosystems of the New World Tropics, 2nd…. From the entry tamandua
  • He leaped forward, brandishing his knife, while the Sons of the Egg fell in behind him.1963, Lester del Rey, The Sky Is Falling. From the entry jutting
  • During the meeting, Trump brandished printouts of what he said were reports about White South Africans being killed.2025 May 21, Daniel Dale, “Fact check: Trump’s false suggestion of a ‘genocide’ against White farmers in South Africa”, in CNN. From the entry South African
  • Often, Parker’s videos consist of her brandishing a book while a caption runs on screen and a soundtrack plays over it.2022 January 31, Anita Singh, “TikTok's curious combination of 'blue hair and tears' is sending book sales through the roof”, in The…. From the entry no because
  • They brandished statistics of deaths from adult circumcision each year.2019, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, “Love Made in Manchester”, in Manchester Happened, Oneworld Publications (2020), page 286. From the entry MGM
  • Before, he had always seemed to believe revenge a dirty business, all thundering muskets and brandished steel, a pleasuresome stench.2013, Alex Taylor, The Name of the Nearest River. From the entry pleasuresome
  • Adora brandished the prop gun as if it were real.2012, Allergic to Death, page 225. From the entry prop gun
  • Another Talib behind him brandished a whip.2007, Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns, BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING (2018), page 279. From the entry Talib
  • He brandished his title as apostolic commissioner in court, and as supervisor of the papal decima in Tuscany.1988, Renaissance Studies, volume 2, page 195. From the entry decima
  • (ghost brandishing a noose:) “Brother, you sure gonna get your face lifted.” (ghost brandishing a razor:) “And a permanent shave!1930, Fleischer Studios, Swing You Sinners. From the entry permanent shave
  • Nila, Agni's son, brandishing an uptorn tree, rushed on Prahasta; but he wounded the monkey with showers of arows.1913, Valmiki, translated by Sister Nivedita and Ananda Coomaraswamy, The Ramayana. From the entry wounded
  • Watching as the woman lifted her skirts and flung out ectoplasm, expelled it into a bowl, then brandished it around at her audience wildly.2021, Jenni Fagan, Luckenbooth, William Heinemann, page 131. From the entry ectoplasm
  • We’ve now spent eight years watching Republican congressmen scurrying hither and thither brandishing pitchforks, outraged at the latest whiff of terrorist fist-bumpery.2016 September 4, Hari Kunzru, “The [Barack] Obama years: novelists assess his legacy”, in The New Review (The Observer), London, →ISSN…. From the entry bumpery
  • Groups of horned devils dance through the streets, brandishing tridents that spout fireworks and generally flouting every safety rule in the book.2013, Time Out Barcelona, 15th edition, Ebury Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry correfoc
  • Lara fired her trademark pistols while Totec brandished a rifle, and both took advantage of unlimited grenades to unleash some 'splodey fun.2010, The Official Xbox Magazine, numbers 107-110, page 40. From the entry 'splodey
  • Although this defence has had little success so far, it is worth brandishing and counts amongst the defences preferred by civil disobedients.2004, María José Falcón y Tella, “The Positive Aspect”, in Peter Muckley, transl., Civil Disobedience (Monographs on International Law and…. From the entry Nuremberg defense
  • The train was soon filled to the brim with obstreperous American tourists brandishing Pina Coladas from the upper deck, and started to resemble a smallish dry-land cruise ship.2026 March 18, Vitali Vitaliev, “Small is beautiful... Pt 3”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 68. From the entry obstreperous
  • Mademoiselle halted momentarily to marvel at a cecaelia rising furiously from the waves being whipped into foam by her tentacles and brandishing a trident high above.2014 June, Christian Vago, The Rotted Garden (The Mademoiselle de Commercy Series; volume one), FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 441. From the entry cecaelia
  • The Labour MP Heidi Alexander said she was appalled after a constituent was robbed at knifepoint, and the attackers could be found brandishing weapons and rapping about gang violence online.2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in The Guardian, archived from the…. From the entry campaign

Meaning of brandish

  1. verb To move or swing a weapon back and forth, particularly if demonstrating anger, threat or skill.
  2. verb To bear something with ostentatious show.
  3. noun The act of flourishing or waving.

Full definition of brandish

Questions about brandish in a sentence

How do you use brandish in a sentence?
Brandish is used as a verb and noun. For example: “He brandished his sword at the pirates.”
What is a short sentence with brandish?
“to brandish syllogisms”
What does brandish mean?
Brandish means to move or swing a weapon back and forth, particularly if demonstrating anger, threat or skill.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brandish (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 brandish in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/brandish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.