Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use resist in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Resist means to attempt to counter the actions or effects of. Example: “It took everything in me to resist the temptation to skip work on my birthday.”

Examples of resist by meaning

verbTo attempt to counter the actions or effects of.

  • Shepard: You could have resisted.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel
  • Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21

nounA protective coating or covering.

  • Keeping the ties loose ensures that the yarn can absorb the dye without creating a resist.2026, Katherine Augustine, “Dyeing in the Baking Aisle”, in Spin Off, volume L, number 1, page 35

More sentences with resist

  • It took everything in me to resist the temptation to skip work on my birthday.From the entry everything
  • When I saw the new book, I couldn't resist the impulse to browse through it.From the entry impulse
  • She was resolute in her determination to resist his romantic advances.From the entry resolute
  • The outpost did not have enough ammunition to resist a determined assault.From the entry outpost
  • Everyone was so nicely dressed up for the wedding, I couldn't resist taking a picture.From the entry dressed up
  • Psammophilous plants tend to have adaptations to resist damage from wind-blown sand.From the entry psammophilous
  • Spacecraft are engineering marvels, designed to resist the thrust of liftoff, as well as the reverse pressure of the void.From the entry thrust
  • The indolent girl resisted doing her homework.From the entry indolent
  • The army's sheer size made it impossible to resist.From the entry sheer
  • I couldn't resist to giggle a little tee hee.From the entry giggle
  • Some months later it was determined that the infection resisted containment measures so easily because it was transmitted aerially.From the entry aerially
  • This species has resisted all attempts at axenic culture.From the entry axenic
  • The owners long resisted buyout offers, but when they were ready to retire, they finally sold out to a competitor.From the entry sell out
  • As the chest wall and lungs hyperinflate, they progressively resist further inflation by virtue of their elastic recoil characteristics.From the entry hyperinflate
  • Although she knew he would break her heart, she couldn't resist the sweet talker with his southern charm.From the entry sweet talker
  • The soldier was backthrusting to resist the opposing force's advance.From the entry backthrust
  • At first, untrained horses resist enclosure.From the entry enclosure
  • Protesters resisted the eviction of squatters.From the entry eviction
  • Poikilohydry occurs in such organisms as lichens and bryophytes, which lack mechanisms such as waterproofing cuticles or stomata that can help resist desiccation.From the entry poikilohydry
  • When it comes to the Middle East, presidents can’t resist indulging in a gasconade.2025 June 28, Maureen Dowd, “Obfuscating on Obliterating”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry gasconade
  • Resist Durge and Spawnstarion is the best romance experience of this game.2024 February 1, deleted_account, Reddit. From the entry Spawnstarion
  • His fingers gently grazed my cheek." Look at me." At first, I resisted.2023 May 31, Jo Wilde, The Angel Series Collection - Books 1-3, Next Chapter. From the entry coal
  • I tried resisting them for a time but I can't help it!2022 October 21, @diapersexualfur, Twitter (post), archived from the original on 14 Aug 2026. From the entry diapersexuality
  • Constand said she was too intoxicated to physically or verbally resist.2021 October 10, Graham Bowley, “For One Bill Cosby Juror, the Work Did Not End With the Trial”, in The New York Times. From the entry encounter
  • I would urge you to resist anything overtly 'baby-ish' for your changing bag.2021, Jen Gale, The Sustainable(ish) Guide to Green Parenting: Guilt-free Eco-ideas for Raising Your Kids, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN…. From the entry changing bag
  • So here, as elsewhere, we ought to resist the pressure to himpathize.2020, Kate Manne, Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women, Crown, →ISBN, page 30. From the entry himpathize
  • He counseled his daughter to resist the lure of hatred and bitterness.2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 10. From the entry counsel
  • He could not change that which has remoulded itself to resist change.2019, Chigozie Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities, Abacus (2019), page 505. From the entry remould
  • I wish I hadn't resisted the magnetic pull of teenageness into that roiling heart of communal feeling.2019, Sam George-Allen, Witches, page 14. From the entry teenageness
  • The conservative movement, having adopted big-tent pseudo-conservatism, will generally resist progressivist impulses for a time.2017 July 4, Matthew Penza, “The Problem with the Big Tent”, in The Princeton Tory. From the entry progressivist
  • It's imperative that conservatives continue to resist the Clintonization of the GOP.2016 November 10, David French, “What Comes Next for Never Trump”, in National Review, archived from the original on 10 Apr 2019. From the entry Clintonization
  • Resisting this systematic stupidification is a noble purpose, which can only be pursued in ordinary life.2016, Michel Puech, The Ethics of Ordinary Technology, →ISBN, page 77. From the entry stupidification
  • You’re an avid Pinterester and you can’t resist a good brunch or over-adjective’d Starbucks order.2016, Grace Helbig, Grace & Style: The Art of Pretending You Have It, Touchstone, →ISBN, page 89. From the entry Pinterester
  • We got out of the car, the guy resisted, and I choked him out.2014, Gary Farmer, The Streets Are Blue, page 302. From the entry choke out
  • Lily resisted the pamby girl impulse to fold her arms across her chest.2014, Tracy Manaster, “Angels and Orifices”, in You Could Be Home by Now, Blue Ash, Oh.: Tyrus Books, →ISBN, page 157. From the entry pamby
  • One night, Sylvio talked about why drug dealers resist drug robbers during a stickup.2013, Randol Contreras, The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page 146. From the entry stickup
  • “Trust me, prettikins, not much in this world can resist my embrace.”2013, Robin Wayne Bailey, Dragonkin. From the entry prettikins

Meaning of resist

  1. verb To attempt to counter the actions or effects of.
  2. verb To withstand the actions of.
  3. verb To oppose; to refuse to accept.

Full definition of resist

Questions about resist in a sentence

How do you use resist in a sentence?
Resist is used as a verb and noun. For example: “It took everything in me to resist the temptation to skip work on my birthday.”
What is a short sentence with resist?
“Shepard: You could have resisted.”
What does resist mean?
Resist means to attempt to counter the actions or effects of.

Source and license

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