How to Use Faustian in a Sentence

Faustian

adjective
  • In view of his Christmas messages of fear and hate, have these same Christians made a Faustian bargain, a deal with the devil?
    Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 9 Jan. 2024
  • Now the party leaders, who one by one have made a Faustian deal with the man in the pink castle, are doing his dirty work — helping Trump wreak vengeance.
    Frida Ghitis, CNN, 14 May 2021
  • But in the Faustian bargain that comes with every new technology, evil is winning in this case.
    Barth Keck, Hartford Courant, 16 Feb. 2024
  • Two camps have emerged, one that has welcomed the resources, reach and riches, the other fearful of a Faustian bargain with the powerful platforms.
    Katie Kilkenny, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Sep. 2022
  • The big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical put a Faustian spin on diamond high jinks.
    Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 30 Mar. 2023
  • But critics warn that captive breeding is a Faustian bargain.
    Tribune News Service, oregonlive, 29 Aug. 2021
  • At the same time, their work implies a Faustian allure to keto, carnivory, and other protein-heavy regimens.
    Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2023
  • There is the hiring and firing of private caregivers, some good, some not, the discovery that one is stealing and the Faustian decision to keep her on because Tillman’s mother loves her.
    Elissa Altman, BostonGlobe.com, 29 July 2022
  • Travis Scott is emblematic of the Faustian bargain one makes when weaving themselves and their art too deeply with capitalism.
    Hazlitt, 23 Aug. 2023
  • He’s made a Faustian bargain with the devil’s representative.
    Dave Lieber, Dallas News, 8 July 2021
  • Teng, the dissident, sees a lesson for critics of Chinese authoritarianism who made the Faustian choice to support Trump and, later, Guo.
    Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2022
  • This Faustian bargain is the equivalent of taxpayers picking up the tab for up to 74 cents of every dollar a donor deems charitable, while the other 26 cents often remain dormant.
    Kat Taylor, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2021
  • This circle was spinning viciously not just in New York but throughout the country at regional theaters, which were cutting their own Faustian bargains with Broadway.
    Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2021
  • But the Faustian compromises required to pass that bill, including opening more of the Gulf to oil and gas drilling, suggest that U.S. climate policy is still beholden to corporate interests.
    Claire Ravenscroft, The New Republic, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Continuing claims about a Faustian bargain, meanwhile, kept Haiti isolated from its neighbors.
    Matthew Brown, Washington Post, 24 Mar. 2024
  • Only debtors that need cash desperately would ever make this Faustian bargain: any corporation with good credit would have locked in the recent sixty-year lows in interest rates, not gambled with an adjustable rate loan.
    James Berman, Forbes, 26 June 2022
  • Mephistopheles, that shape-shifting creature who trades in illusion and Faustian contracts, is a powerful symbol of both modernity and the wicked concessions individuals are willing to make for power.
    TIME, 28 Oct. 2023
  • The city’s pension system was in bad shape because years earlier previous mayors, council members and union officials struck a Faustian bargain to increase retirement benefits while reducing payments into the system.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Feb. 2022
  • Local politicians eagerly joined this Faustian bargain with developers.
    WSJ, 1 July 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'Faustian.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: