How to use inveterate in a sentence

22 example sentences · adjective, verb

Inveterate means firmly established from having been around for a long time; of long standing. Example: “Take anything he tells you with a pinch of salt: he's an inveterate liar and mixes truth with his fiction liberally.”

Examples of inveterate by meaning

adjectiveFirmly established from having been around for a long time; of long standing.

an inveterate disease
an inveterate habit
In Montpelier, where this prison stands, the inveterate prejudice against prisoners has been swept away.1911, Morrison I. Swift, “Humanizing the Prisons,”, in The Atlantic

adjectiveHaving had a habit (usually a bad habit) for a long time.

an inveterate idler; an inveterate gambler; an inveterate smoker
an inveterate traveller
Like many lonely people, he was an inveterate hoarder, making and surrounding himself with objects, barriers against the demands of human intimacy.2017, Olivia Laing, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone, New York: Picador, →ISBN, page 6

More sentences with inveterate

Take anything he tells you with a pinch of salt: he's an inveterate liar and mixes truth with his fiction liberally.From the entry pinch of salt
Take his predictions about our technological and business-development timelines with a grain of salt, because he's an inveterate handwaver.From the entry handwaver
And, despite Hawkins’ inveterate crotch-grabbing, there was never that much meat there to begin with.2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club. From the entry album
Charlie's inveterate clumsiness extends to indextrous misapplications of perfume, especially new ones whose atomizers she hasn't mastered.2008, Adam Davies, Mine All Mine. From the entry indextrous
Justice Holmes was a most popular guest and an inveterate dinner-goer.1999, Walter F. Pratt, The Supreme Court Under Edward Douglass White, 1910-1921, →ISBN, page 23. From the entry dinner-goer
Most retrievers are not inveterate diggers — that′s a trait usually reserved for other breeds like wire-haired terriers and schnauzers.2005, Gary R. Sampson, Dick Wolfsie, Dog Dilemmas: Simple Solutions to Everyday Problems, page 130. From the entry digger
"One case had to undergo re-operation because of severe subscapularis deficiency after repair of a complete, inveterated tear.1996, C. Gerber et al., “Latissimus dorsi transfer for the treatment of irreparable tears of the rotator cuff”, in The Cuff, →ISBN, page 366. From the entry inveterated
On the other hand only inveterate loiterers, the Lazy Lawrences of travel, can appreciate the subtler beauties of this woodland world.1902, Matilda Betham-Edwards, East of Paris. From the entry lazy Lawrence
On the other hand (and perhaps incompatibly) he was thought to be dangerously addicted to speculation: 'an inveterate theorist, an intellectual cardhouse builder'.2007, H. S. Jones, Intellect and Character in Victorian England, page 43. From the entry cardhouse
'I decline to live any longer in the same house with them,' declares the wife of an inveterate lactophile in Jerome K.2001, Matthew Sweet, Inventing the Victorians: What We Think We Know About Them and Why. From the entry lactophile
Unlike jokes and coincidences, the stereotype is an inveterate boundary crosser; it returns, succubuslike, at times of crisis or shifts of perspective, in literary history.1995, Marshall Brown, The uses of literary history, page 184. From the entry succubuslike
Wings' handling of the standard-issue Hammettesque equipment is light, fast, and witty enough to allow even inveterate non-readers of mysteries like myself to stay tuned.1988 December 11, Georgia Cotrell, “A Lezbeen Sam Spade”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 22, page 8. From the entry nonreader
In an effort to encourage a milk diet among these inveterate queeners, some kind spirit pastured a cow in the house one morning.1928, The Stanford Quad, volume 35, page 437. From the entry queener
Their inveterate Hellenophobia was the only relic of the past that survived this great cultural revolution; and it now found for itself a new expression in Christian terms.1961, Arnold Joseph Toynbee, A Study of History, volume 12, page 441. From the entry hellenophobia
Not that my wife is an inveterate gambler; as a matter of fact the poor kid hasn't any card sense at all and doesn't even care for it.1920, Isabel Ostrander, “The Lure of Chance”, in How Many Cards?, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, […], →OCLC, page 188. From the entry pike
An inveterate Fortniter, Price immediately came under media suspicion of going too deep and too late into his video game starts (anybody know the seven-inning equivalent of a twitch count?).2018 October 7, Kevin Paul Dupont, “Canucks’ games are all on the ice”, in Boston Sunday Globe, volume 294, number 99, page C5. From the entry Fortniter

Meaning of inveterate

adjective Firmly established from having been around for a long time; of long standing.
adjective Having had a habit (usually a bad habit) for a long time.
adjective Malignant; virulent; spiteful.

Full definition of inveterate

Questions about inveterate in a sentence

How do you use inveterate in a sentence?: Inveterate is used as an adjective and verb. For example: “Take anything he tells you with a pinch of salt: he's an inveterate liar and mixes truth with his fiction liberally.”
What is a short sentence with inveterate?: “an inveterate disease”
What does inveterate mean?: Inveterate means firmly established from having been around for a long time; of long standing.

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