How to use gladiator in a sentence

20 example sentences · noun, verb

Gladiator means a person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal. Example: “Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.”

Examples of gladiator by meaning

nounA person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild...

My mother prepared herself for the evening with the same somber deliberateness of the gladiators in Spartacus.2002, Dirk Wittenborn, Fierce People
The fanfare begins, the strobes go wild, the crowds roar, hostesses wearing the sort of tinsel dresses that drove me crazy when I was eighteen escort the gladiator into the arena, only he's not a gladiator, he's a plumber.2017, Howard Jacobson, “The Wages of Indulgence is Darts”, in The Dog’s Last Walk (and Other Pieces), London; New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury...

verbTo fight as entertainment for others.

For two hundred of these luckless creatures 'gladiatored' bravely, while an appreciative audience held matting up to its chin to keep from being bespattered with blood.1915, The Atlantic Monthly - Volume 116, page 642
It was called gladiatoring.2013 December 4, “What it's like to spend 20 years on death row”, in The Telegraph

verbTo compete in a public contest.

I played very well as was evidenced in that I was the only participant in the entire six or seven days of wind gladiatoring who received a standing ovation from the orchestra, no less.1994, Saxophone Journal - Volume 19, page 32
It's himself gladiatoring on the harmonium.2019, Ruth Park, A Fence Around the Cuckoo: Text Classics, page 256

verbTo debate or argue.

Quoting the accounts in both Time and Newsweek, they note that though the "defense attorney may have outwitted, outsparred, and even "out gladiatored" (another popular image in the trial coverage) his opponent, but he still lost the case.1988, Bernard S. Jackson, Law, fact and narrative coherence, page 71
It was all part of the gladiatoring: the true performer would argue each case to the utmost, like a debater or mooter in our own world.2005, John K. Hale, Milton's Cambridge Latin: Performing in the Genres, 1625-1632
Och! lave off your gladiatoring; sure it's took up I'd be if I did that!2010, John O'Mahony, R. L. Praeger, The Sunny Side of Ireland, page 71

verbTo act aggressively toward others.

Have I been gladiatoring about the place, boys?1981, Ruth Park, The Frost And The Fire, page 162

More sentences with gladiator

Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.From the entry combatant
The two gladiators fought to the death.From the entry to the death
He hit nearly all targets in bull's-eye, fought like a gladiator, and eventually there was a shink of his sword.2024 January 11, Madelyn Lapierre, The Astro Chronicles, Fulton Books, Inc., →ISBN. From the entry shink
A combatative midfielder, his no-nonsense facial hair gives him the appearance of a gladiator looking for his next kill.2010, James Chambers, Footballers’ Haircuts: A New History, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, page 55. From the entry combatative
The gladiator heelwalker (Tyrannophasma gladiator) is a ferocious nocturnal predator.2007, Naskrecki, Piotr, The smaller majority : the hidden world of the animals that dominate the tropics, page 247. From the entry heelwalker
The charismatic 29-year-old Harlemite is the premier gladiator in a subterranean realm where the quest for flyness is the prime directive.1999, Vibe, volume 7, numbers 1-2. From the entry flyness
These shoeless gladiators "shoot the works" or as they themselves term it "go for broke" in each game.1931 September 19, "Loui", “Want a Lot of Action? See Barefoot Games”, in Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, HI, page 11. From the entry go for broke
That the people of Rome were able to indulge this degenerate desire was merely due to the degraded status of the professional gladiator.2010, Alison Futrell, Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power, University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 169. From the entry blood
So LaDonna Anderson picked up the trainer’s satchel (gad, it was heavy) and went out to attend wounded gladiators and gladiatresses (in season).1978 June 4, Gary Johansen, “Her Job Started as a Fluke”, in Sunday World-Herald Magazine of the Midlands, Omaha, Neb., page 22. From the entry gladiatress
If any gladiator were to run off at the mere sight of his opponent raising his sword, he would be mocked as feeble and effeminate and inexperienced.2014, Jerry Toner, “How to Be a Roman”, in The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino: Understanding the Roman Games (Witness to Ancient History)…. From the entry manly

Meaning of gladiator

noun A person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal.
noun A disputant in a public controversy or debate.
noun A professional boxer.

Full definition of gladiator

Questions about gladiator in a sentence

How do you use gladiator in a sentence?: Gladiator is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.”
What is a short sentence with gladiator?: “It was called gladiatoring.”
What does gladiator mean?: Gladiator means a person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal.

Adapted from Wiktionary: gladiator (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use gladiator in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/gladiator. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.