Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use ensue in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Ensue means to follow (a leader, inclination etc.). Example: “Give three freshmen six bottles of wine, and hilarity will ensue.”

Examples of ensue by meaning

verbTo occur afterwards, as a result or effect.

  • Give three freshmen six bottles of wine, and hilarity will ensue.
  • Nor, having married coach and bogie design successfully, does it follow that good riding will ensue, whatever the track carrying it—as the performance of B.R. standard coaches on flat-bottom, concrete-sleepered track bears witness.1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The riding of B.R. coaches”, in Trains Illustrated, page 705

More sentences with ensue

  • I love the one where he orders a cup of tea but then chaos ensues! LOL!From the entry lol
  • The police officer wounded the suspect during the fight that ensued.From the entry wound
  • When the new baby's rubber duck squeaked at the wedding, hilarity ensued.From the entry hilarity
  • We watched the derailment and ensuing train wreck with a mixture of fascination and horror.From the entry ensuing
  • We sat tensely in the courtroom while the mano-a-mano struggle ensued between the two skilled lawyers.From the entry mano a mano
  • The cradle was ill-made. One victim fell into the sea and was lost and the ensuing delay cost three more lives.From the entry cradle
  • When there is very heavy rainfall on California hillsides over a prolonged period, there is almost always ensuing surface runoff.From the entry surface runoff
  • The manager hesitated to open the doors to the thronging holiday crowds, knowing that a feeding frenzy would soon ensue near the display of coveted toys.From the entry feeding frenzy
  • Having to service demands for both guns and butter, the US economy began to overheat; inflation ensued.2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 2, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part I. The…. From the entry guns and butter
  • Fights ensued as many England supporters attempted to retreat before some stewards moved in.2016 June 11, Phil McNulty, “England 1–1 Russia”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 13 Jun 2016. From the entry scuffle
  • What ensues next is a comical soundless argument only true parents will understand.2014, Emma Chase, Tied. From the entry mouth
  • End-to-end stuff ensued, the Navy trying hard not to be sucked in to the Army’s ‘franticity’.2012 January, “Jinkin’ Jenkin leads RN to win”, in Navy News, page 47. From the entry franticity
  • In the ensuing diastole, these arteries would tend to retract, thus “thinning” the systolically thickened chamber walls.2009, Ares Pasipoularides, Heart's Vortex: Intracardiac Blood Flow Phenomena. From the entry systolically
  • When they do, all kinds of h-e-double-toothpicks can ensue—including a mac that freezes during the startup process.2002, Christopher Breen, Mac 911. From the entry HE-double-toothpicks
  • Thus polydomy ensues when an entire colony breaks up into several nesting aggregations.1987, Jörg Eder, Chemistry and biology of social insects, page 35. From the entry polydomy
  • The ensuing schizosexual behavior is marked by blurred awareness and floundering activity.1963, Hendrik Marinus Ruitenbeek, editor, The Problem of Homosexuality in Modern Society, Dutton, page 123. From the entry schizosexual
  • I know a great deal of difficulty ensues, and frequently brokers' shares are overvoted.1955, Stock Market Study, page 1429. From the entry overvote
  • In the ensuing financial panic, many persons sustained heavy losses, and large numbers of unsound schemes succumbed.1946 September and October, “Speculation Run Riot”, in Railway Magazine, page 269. From the entry unsound
  • No adverse consequences ensued for British naval or civilian interests from the rendition of the territory.1938, Sir Eric Teichman, Affairs Of China: A Survey of the Recent History and Present Circumstances of the Republic of China, Methuen…. From the entry Weihaiwei
  • The Chink was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively quarrel ensued.1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 51”, in The Moon and Sixpence. From the entry backward
  • But shiftings and readjustments ensued, as they are sure to do with a walking-party.1919, Henry B[lake] Fuller, “Cope at His House Party”, in Bertram Cope’s Year: A Novel, Chicago, Ill.: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The…. From the entry scuffle
  • The ensuing snarknado also seemed to goose the TV ratings.2023 July 10, James Poniewozik, “The Twitter Watch Party Is Over”, in The New York Times. From the entry goose
  • Darrell and Michael move in- but, before the inevitable squirmish ensues, another bouncer quickly moves toward the incident.2019 July 8, Demetrius Divine Carey, “Section 2”, in One Man's Money: A Novel, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 44. From the entry squirmish
  • You know those movies where the goofy housemate reads a book of spells on Halloween and hijinxs ensue?2018, L. J. McLeod, “The Perils of Having a Roommate Obsessed with the Occult on Hallows’ Eve”, in T. C. Phillips, editor, Behold the…. From the entry high jinks
  • It is noteworthy that the changes of hyper-somatotropism ensue so gradually that they literally creep under the skin of their victims.2012, C. R. Kannan, The Pituarity Gland. From the entry somatotropism
  • During the ensuing conflict the original timeline was restored, but some Tick-Tocks survived, remnants of a time that time itself forgot.2012, Andy Gavin, Untimed, Pacific Palisades, C.A.: Mascherato Publishing, →ISBN, page 255. From the entry time forgot
  • The ensuing embassy received the still more delphic reply that "the Carthaginians knew very well" what this meant.2010, Dexter Hoyos, The Carthaginians, Routledge, →ISBN, page 215. From the entry delphic
  • Boyd’s ensuing burst of proud Scots patriotism quickly gives place to a flood of boundless basileiolatry and optimism.2008, Julian Goodare, Alasdair A. MacDonald, editors, Sixteenth-Century Scotland, page 414. From the entry basileiolatry
  • After computer assembly, a finishing phase ensues, wherein the gaps between assembled contigs are closed experimentally, and any misassembly is resolved.2000 March 24, Eugene W. Myers et al., “A Whole-Genome Assembly of Drosophila”, in Science, volume 287, number 5461, →DOI, pages 2196–2204. From the entry misassembly
  • When an argument and a shouting match ensued, the crowds outside pushed their way into the poll room.1999, John Carrick Greene, Between Damnation and Starvation, McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN, page 160. From the entry shouting match
  • The ensuing struggle was bitter but brief, as for a third time the Alabamians stumbled rearward through the cedars.1991, Peter Cozzens, Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River, page 124. From the entry rearward
  • More octaves ensue, followed by chromatic passagework with filigree scales.1987, Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists, →ISBN, page 189. From the entry passagework
  • Other aspects were also taken into consideration in the pansophic method, ensuing from the syncrisis of the general and particular.1984, Marie Kyralová, Symposium Comenianum 1982: The Impact of J.A. Comenius on Educational Thinking and Practice, page 19. From the entry syncrisis
  • The earliest known age of pessimism and disillusionment ensued.1935, James H. Breasted, chapter II, in The Dawn of Conscience, pages 20–21. From the entry messianism
  • Their entire destiny depends on the ensuing nuptial flight.1903 [1901], Maurice Maeterlinck, translated by Alfred Sutro, The Life of the Bee, New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, page 264. From the entry impregnate
  • Given the German backbone of the European financial system, considerable Teutonophobia and dissipation of the political consensus supporting the European Union ensued.2023, Paul B. Stephan, “Cracks in the Foundation and System Shocks: Terror, the Great Recession, and the Arab Spring (2000–15)”, in The…. From the entry Teutonophobia
  • Thru-hiking the AT, he wrote in the opening pages of the ensuing book, would get me fit after years of waddlesome sloth.2021, Philip D'Anieri, The Appalachian Trail: A Biography, page 199. From the entry waddlesome
  • Some people have argued that it is our membership of the European Union which helped create the messy privatisation and everything that ensued.2019 October 23, Christian Wolmar, “It's not the EU's fault that privatisation has broken down”, in Rail, page 49. From the entry privatisation

Meaning of ensue

  1. verb To follow (a leader, inclination etc.).
  2. verb To follow (in time), to be subsequent to.
  3. verb To occur afterwards, as a result or effect.

Full definition of ensue

Questions about ensue in a sentence

How do you use ensue in a sentence?
Ensue is used as a verb. For example: “Give three freshmen six bottles of wine, and hilarity will ensue.”
What is a short sentence with ensue?
“The earliest known age of pessimism and disillusionment ensued.”
What does ensue mean?
Ensue means to follow (a leader, inclination etc.).

Source and license

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