How to use deter in a sentence
39 example sentences · verb
Deter means to prevent something from happening. Example: “Their boss deterred them from both taking holidays at the same time, claiming he couldn't manage it all on his own.”
Examples of deter by meaning
verbTo persuade someone not to do something; to discourage.
- Their boss deterred them from both taking holidays at the same time, claiming he couldn't manage it all on his own.
- Such a male-dominated environment is also likely to contribute to the lingering presence of an outdated belief that expressing feelings and demonstrating emotion is a sign of weakness, deterring some men from discussing their problems.2020 July 1, Paul Stephen, “Vital Connections”, in Rail, page 41
- While India’s military is already stretched thin, said Saurav Jha, editor in chief of the Delhi Defense Review, it still needs to keep up a permanent patrol to deter China.2022 September 9, Sameer Yasir, “2 Years After Deadly Fistfights, India and China Pull Back From Border”, in The New York Times, →ISSN...
More sentences with deter
- The dubiousness of the old rope bridge deterred me from trying to cross.From the entry dubiousness
- In times of scarcity, wardens of the peace patrolled the city’s streets to deter the conforaneous vendors’ less scrupulous competition strategies.From the entry conforaneous
- Roadside virtual fencing systems activate lights and sounds to deter wildlife from entering the road as vehicles approach.From the entry virtual fencing
- Graber on Thursday to change that name seems to have deterred them.[2023 April 29, Sheera Frenkel, “Interest Builds Over Bluesky, A Social Site Akin to Twitter”, in New York Times, page B3. From the entry skeet
- It was later developed to deter duelling by making seconds and doctors liable for murder.2016 October 31, Owen Bowcott, “Appeal court upholds 'joint enterprise' guilty verdicts”, in The Guardian. From the entry second
- As such, they cannot be deterred or reasoned with in any way.2011 April 30, United States Strategic Command, CONPLAN 8888-11 "COUNTER-ZOMBIE DOMINANCE" (PDF), archived from the original on 15 Mar…. From the entry cognizant
- Also, boyfriending him seems to do absolutely nothing to deter him.2008, Dana Reinhardt, How to Build a House: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Wendy Lamb Books, →ISBN, page 104. From the entry boyfriend
- That he'd never had a pizza puff did not deter him.2006, Andy Nash, Through the Lens of Social Justice. From the entry pizza puff
- Talking to Miss Maidie had deterred me from grabbing a quick greaseburger en route.1999, Rod Davis, American Voudou: Journey Into a Hidden World, page 145. From the entry greaseburger
- They further state that this roteness of learning deters many students from continuing to study the sciences.1998, Karen Ann Williams, An Investigation of Meaningful Understanding and Effectiveness of the Implementation of Piagetian and Ausubelian…. From the entry roteness
- Network Rail and Avanti West Coast have installed a solar-powered 'electronic scarecrow' to deter birds from entering Longsight depot in Manchester.2020 September 23, “Network News: Longsight depot uses 'scarecrow'”, in Rail, page 26. From the entry solar-powered
- While rare, they make the news and help to deter people from future rail travel, both travellers and news viewers.2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42. From the entry delay
- They are also deterred from such activities because transdisciplinary pursuits tend to be intrinsically more time-consuming than their intradisciplinary counterparts.2015 September 17, “Author Credit for Transdisciplinary Collaboration”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry intradisciplinary
- Langdon could tell there would be no deterring her and so he acquiesced, turning his attention back to the pyramid.2009, Dan Brown, chapter 70, in The Lost Symbol, →ISBN. From the entry acquiesce
- Because punishment does so little to deter chemical addiction, liberal reformers usually prefer detox centers and twelve-step programs.1995, Christopher Jencks, The Homeless, page 46. From the entry twelve-step program
- However, these many disappointments did not deter Sun Yat-sen.1989, Chu-yuan Cheng, editor, Sun Yat-sen's Doctrine in the Modern World, Westview Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 21. From the entry Waichow
- I was sentenced to 90 days 'keep-lock' in order 'to deter other inmates from disobeying an order to urinate.'1989 December 17, Edward Inman, “Disobeying An Order To Piss Lands Transsexual In Isolation”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 23…. From the entry keeplock
- This kind of surface will deter both vehicles and pedestrials, and at the same time require a minimum of maintenance.1969, Northern Ireland. Ministry of Development, Landscape Aspects of Road Design, page 9. From the entry pedestrial
- Then, too, a record of failures—particularly if it is a dignified and well-authenticated record—deters a young man from trying.1922, Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther, chapter 5, in My Life and Work, Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc., →OCLC. From the entry fools rush in where angels fear to tread
- Judges consistently oversentence people to prove they are “tough on crime,” and do so under the guise that such sentences will deter others.2023 December 8, Anthony Ehlers, “Who is a political prisoner?”, in Chicago Reader, archived from the original on 23 Aug 2025. From the entry oversentence
- Unlike hedgehogs, all gymnures produce a strong ammoniac smell reminiscent of rotten garlic, the better to establish territories and to deter enemies when frightened.2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 50. From the entry gymnure
- If there's one phrase that deters people from taking the train, it is: "A rail replacement service will operate on this route."2020 November 18, Christian Wolmar, “Rail replacement buses: the system needs changing”, in Rail, page 34. From the entry rail replacement service
- But Greene's ingratiating persona and understated (for this style of music) metaphors should remain grounded enough to not deter even the most gung-ho emo-phobes.2014 December 24, Joshua Levine, “Soundbites”, in Tuscon Weekly. From the entry emophobe
- And just in case the blue doors didn’t deter the Hag, Hepzibah had planted a row of conch shells in her garden.2005, Sue Monk Kidd, The Mermaid Chair, →ISBN. From the entry booga hag
- In contrast, if investors viewed the introduction of the poison pill as deterring potential takeover attempts, the effect on shareholder returns would be negative.2003, Donald DePamphilis, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Restructuring Activities, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 151. From the entry poison pill
- Provided by Rentokil, specially trained birds of prey - such as Harris's hawks - are flown to deter gulls and other pest birds without causing them harm.2023 May 31, “Network News: Rail Minister a keynote speaker at Rail Live 2023”, in RAIL, number 984, page 19. From the entry Harris's hawk
- Authorizing a vaccine before that may undermine the public’s trust in the regulatory process, and deter parents who are already anxious about immunizing their children, they warn.2022 February 9, Apoorva Mandavilli, “The Next Vaccine Debate: Immunize Young Children Now, or Wait?”, in The New York Times. From the entry immunize
- Other species have evolved elaborate defenses to deter “brood parasites,” birds that try to fob off the tedious work of parenting by slipping their eggs into other birds’ nests.2020 August 4, Richard Conniff, “They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody’s fool”, in National Geographic Magazine. From the entry fob off
- These can cause liver damage to horses, but only if fed dried in fodder, as the sharp taste of the fresh plant deters horses in the field.2016, Hoyland, Graham, Walking through spring : an English journey, page 226. From the entry mare's fart
- The defender at the back of the lineout is perfectly positioned to catch an overthrow, and deter the attacking halfback from running around the back of the lineout.2013, Marcus Blackburn, “Lesson 5: Defend as a Team”, in Coaching Rugby Sevens, 2nd edition, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 92. From the entry overthrow
- Since civil disobedients act conscientiously, Cohen believes that “extra-long prison terms will not make better men of these disobedients, nor much deter others of similar conviction.”1972, Social Theory and Practice, volume 2, page 493. From the entry disobedient
- If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred.1962, John F. Kennedy, We choose to go to the moon. From the entry capsule
- The committee, under Lord Coleraine, its Chairman, has a mind of its own, and is not deterred by argument where it is convinced that it has a good case.1957 August, “The Central Transport Consultative Committee”, in Railway Magazine, page 582. From the entry have a mind of one's own
- Kovert suffered from a paraschizophrenic condition, and was a totally irresponsible psychotic whom neither policemen, nor the entire United States Army, would have deterred from the homicide.1955, Court-martial Reports: Holdings and Decisions of the Judge Advocates General, Boards of Review and United States Court of Military…. From the entry paraschizophrenic
- True, he knew that when he beheld it, the offspring of his brain would have been mangled almost out of recognition, but that did not deter him.1920 April 10 – August 28, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter 17, in The Little Warrior [Jill the Reckless], New York, N.Y.: George…. From the entry brainchild
- Even if we grant that the "gelasts" are getting reduced to the dimensions of a petty sect, the consideration need not deter us from choosing laughter as our theme.1902, James Sully, An Essay on Laughter: Its Forms, Its Causes, Its Development and Its Value, London; […]: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 2. From the entry gelast
Meaning of deter
- verb To prevent something from happening.
- verb To persuade someone not to do something; to discourage.
- verb To distract someone from something.
Questions about deter in a sentence
- How do you use deter in a sentence?
- Deter is used as a verb. For example: “Their boss deterred them from both taking holidays at the same time, claiming he couldn't manage it all on his own.”
- What is a short sentence with deter?
- “However, these many disappointments did not deter Sun Yat-sen.”
- What does deter mean?
- Deter means to prevent something from happening.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: deter (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 deter in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/deter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
