How to Use by force in a Sentence

by force

idiom
  • These peoples, then, were not to be reasoned with but to be controlled by force.
    Marc Lynch, Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2024
  • These peoples, then, were not to be reasoned with but, rather, to be controlled by force.
    Marc Lynch, Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2024
  • The fifth references the founding charter of the U.N., which states that borders cannot be changed by force.
    Simon Shuster/bürgenstock, TIME, 25 June 2024
  • Postal keys were also taken by force in each of the May 11 incidents.
    Jason Green, The Mercury News, 17 May 2024
  • The wood on my front door was split open by force, and the contents of every drawer and cabinet were tossed around.
    Leif Wenar, WIRED, 2 Apr. 2024
  • Russia’s attempt to seize Ukraine by force has sharpened the focus on China’s threats to do the same to Taiwan.
    Ben Dooley, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Aug. 2023
  • Until there are new leaders in the Kremlin, Ukraine has no choice but to resist Russia by force.
    Liana Fix, Foreign Affairs, 12 Sep. 2023
  • Masterson is charged with three counts of rape by force or fear, which could mean up to 45 years in prison if if he’s convicted.
    Staff and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 18 Oct. 2022
  • On April 30, police cracked down on the protest, arresting dozens of students and taking back the campus by force.
    Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2024
  • If a Chinese attempt to take Taiwan by force were to succeed, the consequences could be dire.
    Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 24 June 2024
  • And if Ukraine does try to take the peninsula back by force as its leaders have promised, many of the 2.4 million people living here will be caught in the middle.
    Keir Simmons, NBC News, 28 Feb. 2023
  • Aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force.
    Danielle Wallace, Fox News, 6 June 2024
  • Even though protests inspired by her death have been quashed by force, Iranian women are still fighting.
    Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune, 15 Sep. 2023
  • China claims Taipei as its own — and has vowed it will be united with the People’s Republic one day — by force if necessary.
    Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2023
  • All three skills could be vital in a battle for Taiwan, which Beijing has threatened to take by force, and Hawaii has become a testing ground for them all.
    Damien Cave Mark Abramson, New York Times, 15 Dec. 2023
  • Monsignor Francis Strahan, 89, was charged with one count of rape of a child by force and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.
    Travis Andersen, BostonGlobe.com, 8 Nov. 2022
  • That is, throw their bodies upon the gears, in hopes of at least slowing things down for one more day, every day, for as long as possible, by force if nothing else.
    Katie Myers, WIRED, 20 Jan. 2024
  • Harris also appeared to make a veiled reference to China and the threat of it retaking Taiwan by force.
    Ben Gittleson, ABC News, 18 Feb. 2023
  • Video of the assault confirmed by a US official shows several people holding the Marines by force as a speaker on the street screams loudly.
    Cnn.com, The Mercury News, 3 Sep. 2024
  • The ruling Communist Party says the island is obliged to rejoin the mainland, by force if necessary.
    Joe McDonald, ajc, 8 Apr. 2023
  • Meanwhile, Reddit staffers restored access to more pages, often by force.
    Paresh Dave, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2024
  • But Moscow no longer appears willing to do so, and Azerbaijanis are taking the region back by force.
    Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Sep. 2023
  • The root cause of the war is Russia’s refusal to accept the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its willingness to take its former empire back by force.
    Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs, 13 June 2023
  • This ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh – first through hunger, then by force of arms – completed the Azerbaijani victory.
    Ronald Suny, The Conversation, 3 Oct. 2023
  • Ruan was taken away by force, shattering a lens of his eyeglasses.
    Nectar Gan, CNN, 29 Mar. 2023
  • Aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force — these are perennial.
    Peter Baker, New York Times, 6 June 2024
  • Zephyr’s supporters were escorted from the gallery above the state House floor, including several by force.
    Amy Beth Hanson and Sam Metz, Chicago Tribune, 24 Apr. 2023
  • The arc of the moral universe has to be bent toward justice by force, or authoritarians will push it toward slavery—or worse.
    Samuel Moyn, The New Republic, 14 Feb. 2023
  • The government has dragged its feet in implementing this ruling, however, and the military has been reluctant to recruit by force.
    Aluf Benn, Foreign Affairs, 4 Oct. 2024
  • No amount of tactical escalation can overcome this; the enormous distance between periphery and center won’t be transcended by force of will.
    Seyward Darby, Longreads, 2 Oct. 2024

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

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