How to use obscene in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, verb

Obscene means offensive to standards of decency or morality. Example: “The church filed an in rem petition with the court, requesting that the book be declared obscene.”

Examples of obscene by meaning

adjectiveOffensive to standards of decency or morality.

What is obscene today may not be so tomorrow or what is obscene at one place may not be obscene at another place.1990, Inder S. Rana, Law of Obscenity in India, USA & UK, New Delhi: Mittal Publications, →ISBN, page 109
The chapter closes with some thoughts on the obscene consumer from both a postmodern, and especially a modern, perspective.2001, George Ritzer, Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption: Fast Food, Credit Cards and Casinos, London; Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE...
South Park, at the end of the twentieth century, earned international acclaim as the most obscene, scatological, sacrilegious, and popular comedy in the American mainstream and became a leading profit center for Comedy Central.2009, Lori Lipoma, “Kirkegaard, Contradiction, and South Park: The Jester’s View of Religion”, in Leslie Stratyner, James R. Keller...

adjectiveLewd or lustful.

Obscene phone calling is usually considered a nuisance to the women receiving such calls from a man who makes obscene suggestions or describes his masturbation over the telephone.2004 August 25, Victor T. Cheney, “Other Sex-related Problems”, in The Sex Offenses and their Treatments: The Problem—The...
I was contacted about a two-year-old Latino male and informed that his behavior was obscene.2011, Alberto Salinas, Jr., “Actual Demon Possession Cases”, in The Border Healer: My Life as a Curandero, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse...

adjectiveDisgusting or repulsive.

Her mom made her break up with me when she found a note I wrote to Linda; she found it obscene.2014 February 12, Scott Ludwig, “October”, in My Life: Everything but BUY THE BOOK!: Part 2 of 2, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN

adjectiveBeyond all reason; excessive.

She would probably jump at the chance to show everyone how to save an obscene amount of money with an obscene amount of coupons.2015 February, Vivi Barnes, chapter 18, in Stacy Abrams, Tara Quigley, editors, Paper or Plastic, Fort Collins, Colo.: Entangled Teen...
Things meant nothing to me because I had an obscene quantity of everything.2016, Marcela Del Sol, Kaleidoscope: My Life’s Multiple Reflections, Calwell, Canberra, A.C.T.: Inspiring Publishers, →ISBN, page 102

adjectiveLiable to corrupt or deprave.

An article is not obscene simply because it is repulsive or filthy.2016, Hugh Jones, Christopher Benson, “Defamation and Other Risks”, in Publishing Law, 5th edition, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y....

verbTo act or speak in an obscene manner; to offend.

They passed the little stenchy cubicles shared by two families to a floor, and the graffiti gratuitously graven onto the walls, obscening the world and telling it, them, those, the fuzz, and everyone to go and . . .1960 October, Sol Yurick, “The Annealing”, in The Noble Savage, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Meridian Books, Inc., →LCCN, page 111
“Fucked up, is what they are,” the priest obscened.2004, Edward Lee, The Bighead, Hiram, GA: Overlook Connection Press, →ISBN, page 143

More sentences with obscene

The church filed an in rem petition with the court, requesting that the book be declared obscene.From the entry in rem
The language he used to talk to me was obscene.From the entry language
Saying that obscenity is indecent and then saying something is indecent if it's obscene is a circular definition.From the entry circular definition
Those obscene tattoos are going to blight your job prospects.From the entry blight
We opened them and obscene (to us children) amounts of money fell out.2015, Vicki Lesage, Christmas Confessions & Cocktails: A Humorous Holiday Memoir with Sassy Drink Recipes. From the entry Scrooge McDuck
She's wearing a gunmetal gray dress that’s tasteful in front, and practically obscene from the back.2012, John Locke, Wish List (Donovan Creed), John Locke Books, →ISBN, page 18. From the entry gunmetal gray
The Greeks call this member clitoris, from which the obscene word clitorize is derived.2001, Harriette Andreadis, Sappho in Early Modern England, page 40. From the entry clitorize
Why, the level of obscene insultry on smn wouldn't curl the hairs of a kindergarten class.1998 April 10, TMOliver, “GET A LIFE PEOPLE!!!!”, in sci.military.naval (Usenet). From the entry insultry
The Production Candy Store Problem: The money we spend on video effects in TV production is obscene.1997, Communication Arts, numbers 270-272, page 40. From the entry candy store problem
Abstract words such as glory, honour, courage, or hallow were obscene.1929, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms. From the entry abstract
Appeal to galactophilia, maiesiophilia, or other fetishes may be evidence that animal breastfeeding is criminal and depictions are obscene.2015, Carmen M. Cusack, Animals, Deviance, and Sex, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, page 33. From the entry maiesiophilia
Nice Guy, they say "he's sick, he's obscene!""1973, Alice Cooper and Michael Bruce, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, in Billion Dollar Babies. From the entry no more Mr. Nice Guy
There was something almost obscene about a strong, healthy woman blubbering in the sunlight in that public place.1955, Patrick White, chapter 13, in The Tree of Man, New York: Viking, pages 198–199. From the entry take on
We need publicly owned utilities to do what they say on the tin, rather than simply siphon off obscene profits to shareholders.2022 August 12, Caroline Lucas, “As drought blights the UK, our politicians have their heads buried in the sand”, in The Guardian. From the entry do exactly what it says on the tin
So an alternative explanation is that Trump reached for what he thought was a Yinglish word for ‘beat’ and inadvertently coined an obscene one.”2015 December 22, Justin Wm. Moyer, “Donald Trump’s ‘schlonged’: A linguistic investigation”, in The Washington Post, archived from the…. From the entry Yinglish
I expected to hear on the other end an obscene caller, a local news person looking for fresh dirt, a concerned but nosy friend.2011, Wendy Hornsby, Bad Intent, →ISBN. From the entry bad news travels fast
Two chairs are superimposed in such a way that they truly appear obscene, and immediately a couple will imitate the same position on them.1998, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. From the entry mishappy
Here are the three strange men have exposed themselves to me, the two obscene phone callers, the time I was goosed by an employer.1991 August 24, Artemis OakGrove, “I Deserve A Medal”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 6, page 5. From the entry goose
As he moves back into the shadows, the stage is taken over by a troupe of Pan-like dancers, leaping and cavorting in an obscene ballet.1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 94. From the entry cavort
Certain unscrupulous individuals grow rich through the manufacture and distribution of suggestive postcards, obscene steriopticon views, and inexcusable books and typewritten pamphlets.1930, Jefferis & Nichols, Safe Counsel or Practical Eugenics, page 200. From the entry stereopticon
Touretters also occasionally suffer from copropraxia, which involves obscene gestures such as giving the finger or crotch grabbing, and coprographia, the urge to make obscene drawings.2013, Melissa Mohr, Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing. From the entry Touretter
DirectX 10 promises an almost obscene step up in the level of eye candy you can expect from an A-list game, which is the great news.2007, Maximum PC, number Winter, page 3. From the entry eye candy
The others' swearing tended to be blasphemous rather than obscene, a fact that could be attributed partly to their middle-class background and partly to the mixed gender company.2005, Ruth Wajnryb, Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language, page 146. From the entry nonswearer
The NATO visitors watched an ersatz eighteenth-century dance (complete with powdered wigs and simulated copulation) that might have been considered obscene had it not been so amusing.2003 February 17, David Remnick, “Exit the Castle: Václav Havel”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC. From the entry ersatz
More and more extravagant and obscene material was being accumulated as if to subvert aesthetic notions of civility and decorum with new ideals of inclusive grotesquery and excess.1992, Richard Brown, “Beginnings”, in James Joyce: A Post-Culturalist Perspective (Macmillan Modern Novelists), Basingstoke, Hampshire…. From the entry gargantuanly
Their appearance leads to an orgy of multitudinous fornications, a wild tumult of perversions and obscene interlacings which language is dislocated and fiercely fractured to express.1989, Contemporary literary criticism : excerpts from criticism of the works of today's novelists, poets, playwrights, and other creative…. From the entry fecality
Gay people have belabored on this issue far too long and far too hard to allow the efforts of years to be evaporated through this obscene ruling.1976 April 10, “Now What?”, in Gay Community News, page 4. From the entry evaporate
From this crawling flapping mass of obscene reptilian life came the shocking clamor which filled the air and the mephitic, horrible, musty odor which turned us sick.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC. From the entry mephitic
But as it is, Koch wants this antirape comedy to be trendy, tough, and hilarious too, and considering the material, that not only won't wash, it's just a tad obscene.1988 June 10, Lawrence Bommer, “Teeth”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry antirape

Meaning of obscene

adjective Offensive to standards of decency or morality.
adjective Lewd or lustful.
adjective Disgusting or repulsive.

Full definition of obscene

Questions about obscene in a sentence

How do you use obscene in a sentence?: Obscene is used as an adjective and verb. For example: “The church filed an in rem petition with the court, requesting that the book be declared obscene.”
What is a short sentence with obscene?: “Nice Guy, they say "he's sick, he's obscene!""”
What does obscene mean?: Obscene means offensive to standards of decency or morality.

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