Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use duel in a sentence

36 example sentences · noun, verb

Duel means arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor. Example: “The two dogs were duelling for the bone.”

Examples of duel by meaning

nounArranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.

  • One member was "chiefly eminent as a whist player," and another was known for his duel with a fellow M.P. fought at Wormwood Scrubs in 1840.1960 March, N. Caplan, “The Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 209
  • It has been 200 years, minus a few days, since Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel here.2004 July 5, Jason George, “A Duel Evokes Dueling Emotions Over a Unique Place in History”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the...
  • John Cilley of Maine in a duel in 1838, Congress imposed a prohibition on pistol duels in the District of Columbia.2017 June 14, Julian Zelizer, “The challenge of protecting members of Congress”, in CNN, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2017

nounAny battle or struggle between two contending persons, forces, groups, or ideas.

  • a sniper duel
  • But it leaves them with a few destroyers, the American destroyer force is falling back, and then you have the two cruiser lines with their respective battleships coming in for the big duel.2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 25:33 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!, archived from the...

verbTo engage in a battle.

  • The two dogs were duelling for the bone.
  • The country’s fencing federation has officially recognised lightsaber duelling as a competitive sport, granting the weapon from George Lucas’s space saga the same status as the foil, epee and sabre, the traditional blades used at the Olympics.2019 February 19, “Lightsaber duelling registered as official sport in France”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Nov 2020

More sentences with duel

  • Even at the duel, standing 10 paces apart, he could have satisfied Aaron’s honor.From the entry pace
  • The count demanded satisfaction in the form of a duel at dawn.From the entry satisfaction
  • With a punctilious slap of the gloves, the duel was now inevitable.From the entry punctilious
  • The Western film had a quickdraw gun duel scene.From the entry quickdraw
  • 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
  • Anyway, Eric kept humming some dueling banjos song and talking about people who marry their first cousins.2014, Pamela Fagan Hutchins, Hot Flashes and Half Ironmans, →ISBN. From the entry dueling banjos
  • The crack and blast of a duel on the far side of the thorn ridge beckoned.2003, Thomas Goltz, Chechnya Diary: A War Correspondent's Story of Surviving, →ISBN. From the entry onehandedness
  • In the first stage of our duel, we did battle on the monkey bars of doom!1999, Mona the Vampire, "Von Kreepsula Runs Amok" (season 1, episode 2a). From the entry merry-go-whirl
  • There are three primary means of establishing dominance: the facedown, the gamecraft and the duel.1994, Mark Rein-Hagen, Robert Hatch, Bill Bridges, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, page 36. From the entry gamecraft
  • Herzl's identification with pseudoaristocratic ideals extended to his espousal of the code of honor of the duel.1993, Jacques Kornberg, Theodor Herzl: From Assimilation to Zionism, page 59. From the entry pseudoaristocratic
  • They are intended for an actual duel or battle.2021, Dale Anthony Girard, Actors on Guard, page 128. From the entry prop sword
  • If you have a friend or family member to shoot with, Action Target's dueling tree is loads of fun.2013, Richard Allen Mann, Handgun Training for Personal Protection. From the entry dueling tree
  • Bochy was speaking for the masses, who watched a supposed duel of Cy Young award winners evolve into a full-fledged shellacking.2010 Ben Shpigel, "Charmed Giants Take a Big First Step," The New York Times, October 28, 2010. From the entry shellacking
  • Their tools were computers and when three or four engineers surrounded a car and plugged in, the scene wasn't dueling banjos.1998, James Schefter, All Corvettes Are Red, →ISBN, page 311. From the entry dueling banjos
  • (Aaron Burr and Andrew Jackson ride together in Tennessee; Burr narrates): Jackson shouted at me his view of the duel.1973, Gore Vidal, Burr, chapter 36. From the entry pusillanimous
  • The divers grappled each other in an octopuslike duel.1961, Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung. From the entry octopuslike
  • Neither had ever mentioned the duel or the cause of it since that morning upon the field of honor.1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “A Duel”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published…. From the entry field of honor
  • But in running debate, which is like a duel with swords, Blaine was the Cyrano de Bergerac of his generation.1902, John James Ingalls, edited by William Elsey Connelley, A Collection of the Writings of John James Ingalls: Essays, Addresses, and…. From the entry Cyrano de Bergerac
  • Some groaners are converted into running gags, as when Joel and his brother (Max Greenfield) get in a duel of parting, one-last-thing-before-you-go affirmations.2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the…. From the entry running gag
  • Then he created a modified dueling tree, featuring six steel targets that swung from one side of a central column to the other when shot.2013, Erik Prince, Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater. From the entry dueling tree
  • However the century-long duel between Mamluks and Mongols was over and once again the magneticism of Jerusalem's sanctity drew the world back.2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 334. From the entry magneticism
  • I— when I was young and still with my people, weaponsmasters from the furthest clans came to watch me in a practice duel.2007, Tom Lloyd, The Twilight Herald, London: Gollancz, →ISBN, pages 56–57. From the entry weaponsmaster
  • The other duel, which occurred much earlier but was indelible in the town's memory, was the one between Plinio Balmaceda and Dionisiano Barrios.2003, Gabriel García Márquez, chapter 4, in Edith Grossman, transl., Living to Tell the Tale, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page…. From the entry abstemious
  • They fought with fighting-sticks, but the duel developed into a mêlée in which Big Paddy laid out three others who came to the usurper’s assistance.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 27. From the entry mêlée
  • The two kendōkas were engaged in a fierce duel, and the wooden swords they held with both hands quivered with each clash of blades that resounded across the gym.2025, Ethan Cole, “Kendo Gym”, in Peerless Genius System, volume I. From the entry kendōka
  • After Duelist's Kingdom, Yuugi duels the granddaughter of his grandfather's friend, Arthur Hawkins, for the rights to Sugoroku's BEWD, which, if you remember, Seto Kaiba tore up.2003 October 5, Mizu-chan (P. Frederickson), “Re: Yu-Gi-Oh cards site?”, in rec.arts.anime.games (Usenet), message-ID…. From the entry BEWD
  • Hemingway's subject for the epilogue was the mano a mano (or hand-to-hand, a duel) between Spain's two leading matadors, Luis Miguel Dominguin and his brother-in-law, Antonio Ordonez.1985 June 9, William Kennedy, “The Last Ole”, in The New York Times. From the entry matador
  • Believing the J and J team dirtied their pure status, Connor Big Lebowski challenged the campaign in a duel of words saying quote “That wasn’t very cash money of you.”2022 April 5, Lady FlatHatDown [pseudonym], “Corsets, Eye-Contact, Tea, and Student Assembly”, in The Fat Head, Williamsburg, Va.: College…. From the entry cash money
  • Taking the 18th-century tale at a steady, relentless drumbeat, and with a seductively cool detachment, Kubrick guides you through his hero’s rise and fall, bookended by two sensational duelling scenes.2016 July 28, Peter Bradshaw, “Barry Lyndon review – Kubrick's intimate epic of utter lucidity”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry bookend

Meaning of duel

  1. noun Arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.
  2. noun Historically, the wager of battle (judicial combat).
  3. noun Any battle or struggle between two contending persons, forces, groups, or ideas.

Full definition of duel

Questions about duel in a sentence

How do you use duel in a sentence?
Duel is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The two dogs were duelling for the bone.”
What is a short sentence with duel?
“a sniper duel”
What does duel mean?
Duel means arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: duel (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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