Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use commandeer in a sentence

10 example sentences · verb

Commandeer means to seize for military use. Example: “Moperville South doesn't give bus service out here, so Ellen's commandeering my car."”

Examples of commandeer by meaning

verbTo take or use for some purpose (not necessarily arbitrarily or by force).

  • Moperville South doesn't give bus service out here, so Ellen's commandeering my car."2007 February 5, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Monday, Feb 5, 2007

More sentences with commandeer

  • The county's Party committee, however, commandeered free labor from the production teams to build a new auditorium.1982, Godwin C. Chu, Francis L. K. Hsu, “China's New Social Fabric: Views of Inside from Outside”, in Harrison Brown, editor, China Among…. From the entry Sanho
  • For a few years I commandeered the kitchen.2009, Martyn Cox, Big gardens in small spaces: out-of-the-box advice for boxed-in gardeners, page 181. From the entry shedless
  • The question of commandeering social space and, by extension, reviving a public sphere could well be developed within the architectonic of Bakhtin's theory.2013, Isher-Paul Sahni, “More than Horseplay”, in Studies in Popular Culture, volume 35, page 71. From the entry architectonic
  • Princess Syleen commandeered one of the King's Generals from his admin office and set him up as her regent over Star Point Five.2011, Max Hobby, Oshgomshee and the Princess Syleen, Trafford Publishing, page 353. From the entry princessipality
  • When a federal statute applies on its face to both private and state actors, a commandeering argument is a heavy lift—and petitioners have not pulled it off.2023, Haaland v. Brackeen (U.S. Supreme Court No. 21-376), Justice Barrett (majority opinion). From the entry heavy lift
  • But the person I spied on the most was my father, Lon—or, as he was called in the Southern style, Lonnie—who'd commandeer the den into the wee hours.2019 September 17, Edward Snowden, Permanent Record, New York, N.Y.: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, pages 15–16. From the entry Lonnie
  • The parking lot was a zoo of suburban moms with their Starbucks cups commandeering their Prii (the Toyota-approved plural of Prius) and SUVs into empty spots.2013 June, Porter Gale, “Give Give Get: Why It’s the Real Networking Secret”, in Your Network Is Your Net Worth: Unlock the Hidden Power…. From the entry Prius
  • We were firing at top speed day and night on counter-battery work, neutralisation, and aeroplane shoots, and all spare men were commandeered to help feed the guns.2012, J.J. Webber, 178 Siege Battery R.G.A.: B.E.F. France: 1916-1918, page 15. From the entry day and night
  • In the bulk of commandeering transactions, however, conciliatory valuations have been the order of the day, and the rebels have in most cases got much the best of the commandeerer.1902, Sydney Galvayne, War Horses Present and Future: Or, Remount Life in South Africa. From the entry commandeerer

Meaning of commandeer

  1. verb To seize for military use.
  2. verb To force into military service.
  3. verb To take arbitrarily or by force.

Full definition of commandeer

Questions about commandeer in a sentence

How do you use commandeer in a sentence?
Commandeer is used as a verb. For example: “Moperville South doesn't give bus service out here, so Ellen's commandeering my car."”
What is a short sentence with commandeer?
“For a few years I commandeered the kitchen.”
What does commandeer mean?
Commandeer means to seize for military use.

Source and license

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