Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use lubricate in a sentence

18 example sentences · verb

Lubricate means to make slippery or smooth (normally to minimize friction) by applying a lubricant. Example: “If your bicycle chain is squeaking you should lubricate it.”

Examples of lubricate by meaning

verbTo make slippery or smooth (normally to minimize friction) by applying a lubricant.

  • If your bicycle chain is squeaking you should lubricate it.

verbTo cause someone to become drunk, especially to make them more sociable or talkative.

  • They listened with wonder and pride at their album as it played several times throughout the afternoon, with Cosmo lubricating them with beer and whiskey.2021, Robert A. Webster, Fossils

More sentences with lubricate

  • Changing the oil lubricates the engine and removes debris in one fell swoop.From the entry one fell swoop
  • The engineer bought some lubricating oil for his gears.From the entry lubricating
  • Some types of lubricating grease gum up as they age.From the entry gum up
  • And of course, nothing lubricates a soirée like a bowl full of alpha-methylphenethylamine.2020, Ben Aaronovitch, “A Dedicated Follower of Fashion”, in Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection, JABberwocky…. From the entry alpha-methylphenethylamine
  • When rain water saturates and lubricates weathered debris, a semi liquid mass flows downslope.2006, Jaya Balagopal, Discover Geography Class - 7, page 54. From the entry semi liquid
  • Drink still lubricates politics and business and pleasure for Britons as well as Greeks.1981 August 5, Philip Howard, The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12, column 6; quoted in “Plato”, in Henry Root [pseudonym…. From the entry sympotical
  • The cylinder barrels are lubricated by non-atomised feeds introduced at top and bottom.1956 April, “"Merchant Navy" Class Pacific Modified”, in Railway Magazine, page 211. From the entry piston rod
  • The port reduction gear casing was cracked and lost lubricating oil constantly.1949 January 1, Bureau of Ships, “U.S.S. PERCH (SS176), Loss in Action, Java Sea, 3 March 1942”, in Submarine Report: Depth Charge, Bomb…. From the entry deranged
  • Again and again, orally and in writing, we had asked for lubricating oil for the convoy.1938, Sven Hedin, translated by F. H. Lyon, The Silk Road, Boston: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., page 159. From the entry Suchow
  • Liberal pourings of rum and Cokes helped lubricate the festivities.2008 March 2, Tanzina Vega, “A Taste of Colombia Rolls Through New York’s Streets”, in New York Times. From the entry pouring
  • Therefore an "olivite" rubber bearing lubricated by water offers less frictional resistance than the metal bearing lubricated by grease and oil.1923, “Rubber Surfaced Bearings for Propellor Shafts of Small Craft”, in Rubber Journal, volume 66, page 7. From the entry olivite
  • Dead whales were used to soften leather and lubricate machines and to somewhat mitigate the effects of trench foot in the first world war.2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian. From the entry whale
  • The lubricated mask is inserted fully deflated, with the patient's head and neck in the sniffing position (lower neck flexed and upper neck extended, flextension).2019, Jonathan Thompson, Iain Moppett, Matthew Wiles, Smith and Aitkenhead's Textbook of Anaesthesia, →ISBN, page 471. From the entry flextension
  • Lubricated and fueled by Elf, the nationalized purveyor of French motion lotion, the RE30B is on the verge of becoming perhaps unbeatable.1983, Car and Driver, volume 28, page 106. From the entry motion lotion
  • Safety devices ensure that the engines are automatically shut down in the event of overspeed, low pressure in the lubricating oil system, low cooling-water pressure, or high cooling-water temperature.1955 October, “Main-Line Diesel-Electric Locomotives for Ireland”, in Railway Magazine, page 718. From the entry shut down
  • All other piped services for the locomotives are provided in the shed; two types of lubricating oil, a waste-oil pipeline, compressed air, radiator-coolant water and both hard- and soft-water pipelines.1960 December, “New G.E. Line diesel loco maintenance depot at Stratford”, in Trains Illustrated, page 767. From the entry piped

Meaning of lubricate

  1. verb To make slippery or smooth (normally to minimize friction) by applying a lubricant.
  2. verb To cause someone to become drunk, especially to make them more sociable or talkative.

Full definition of lubricate

Questions about lubricate in a sentence

How do you use lubricate in a sentence?
Lubricate is used as a verb. For example: “If your bicycle chain is squeaking you should lubricate it.”
What is a short sentence with lubricate?
“The engineer bought some lubricating oil for his gears.”
What does lubricate mean?
Lubricate means to make slippery or smooth (normally to minimize friction) by applying a lubricant.

Source and license

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