How to Use commandeer in a Sentence

commandeer

verb
  • The soldiers commandeered civilian vehicles to help transport the injured.
  • School is in session and the class clown has commandeered the lectern.
    Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2019
  • On the second day, Lucky Cat will commandeer the space.
    Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 15 Aug. 2024
  • They were not sent by the Steelers to commandeer Aiyuk and drag him away from his home the past four years.
    Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 14 Aug. 2024
  • The state is commandeering more of the economy to add to its cookie jar to fund the war.
    Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 20 Dec. 2023
  • Right about where the Arizona Trail spins off to the left, aspen trees commandeer the landscape.
    Mare Czinar, The Arizona Republic, 16 Sep. 2021
  • In the final episode, Dre, after killing a ticket scalper to get in, commandeers her way to the front row at a Ni’Jah show.
    Tomi Obaro, New York Times, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Maybe players will commandeer their own steed as a horse-like mount and chase the target.
    Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 14 Feb. 2022
  • The Klan looked worried that their event was about to be commandeered by godless Nazis.
    Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 22 Feb. 2018
  • The dog wants to be free of its leash and bound around in the grass with the other dogs just as the girls wanted to break free of my hand to commandeer the playground toys.
    Bernhard Warner, Fortune, 28 Sep. 2020
  • When the leagues again sued the state to stop the 2014 law, the state told the Supreme Court that Congress couldn’t commandeer state lawmakers to do certain things.
    Matt Ford, The New Republic, 26 Jan. 2023
  • The Giants were 9-2 in the second half and had to face two foes: the Cubs and their fans, who commandeered the ballpark for the first seven innings.
    Henry Schulman, SFChronicle.com, 23 July 2019
  • Hall died after pulling a 9-year-old child out of the line of fire as Lotches was trying to commandeer a car.
    oregonlive, 15 May 2020
  • Freed from white rule, the plotters would commandeer a ship and escape to the black Republic of Haiti.
    Marc M. Arkin, WSJ, 20 Mar. 2022
  • Searching is free, and those with haunted pasts can commandeer a tool to help delete posts for $19 per month (scrubber.social).
    Steven Melendez, WSJ, 26 Apr. 2018
  • The Coast Guard Cutter Midgett took in the biggest haul, commandeering 5,700 pounds of cocaine, the branch said.
    Fox News, 20 Sep. 2019
  • The peanut even came to commandeer the groundnut’s name, the two crops confused by European traders.
    Ruby Tandoh, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2022
  • During breaks between numbers, the audience took the chance to commandeer the show from the floor.
    Lorraine Ali, latimes.com, 2 Nov. 2017
  • The Goldilocks size for any new five-star pile is just large enough so that your entire party can commandeer it as their own.
    Mark Ellwood, Robb Report, 13 June 2024
  • If the apartment building has a common outdoor grill, commandeer a spot on the low-heat side.
    Bill St. John, The Denver Post, 19 Nov. 2019
  • The caller commandeered a boat and reached the man just as firefighters arrived, Sylvia said.
    Ishani Desai, Sacramento Bee, 1 Feb. 2024
  • Our screens have commandeered our eyeballs and taken hold of our lives.
    Wired, 11 Oct. 2019
  • Another pair of bricks there has been commandeered as a doorstop.
    Briana Miller | , oregonlive, 11 Sep. 2023
  • A Cohn quirk was to rarely order food and, instead, commandeer the meals of his dining partners.
    Marie Brenner, The Hive, 4 July 2017
  • The Burtons were the first celebrity couple to be commandeered by the soap opera of their own lives, using their films as a rolling background.
    Andrew O’Hagan, The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2023
  • SpaceX, the thinking went, could commandeer the coastline as needed.
    Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 31 Mar. 2020
  • The free hand that Zelensky has had to commandeer the war effort will be curtailed to some degree.
    Daniel Baer, Foreign Affairs, 5 Aug. 2022
  • Instead, on a hillside thick with heather and gorse where the two men alight to admire the view, Hess commandeers the conversation.
    Emily Eakin, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2016
  • When the cops prove no help, Thelma resolves to get the money back on her own, along the way commandeering a scooter and an accomplice, Ben, played by Richard Roundtree in his final role.
    Mia Galuppo, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 June 2024
  • The couple’s good will is quickly tested as both women vie for control of the household, with Solange commandeering the titular room originally intended as a nursery.
    Nicholas Bell, SPIN, 4 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'commandeer.' 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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