How to Use down-to-the-wire in a Sentence

down-to-the-wire

adjective
  • That figures to make for some low scores and maybe a down-to-the-wire finish.
    Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2023
  • The Chiefs and Lions advanced with tough, down-to-the-wire victories on Sunday.
    Rob Maaddi, USA TODAY, 22 Jan. 2024
  • The down-to-the-wire game ended when Wildcats quarterback Jayden de Laura was stuffed inches short of a first down on a 4th-and-10 scramble in overtime.
    Joe Freeman, oregonlive, 15 Sep. 2023
  • In a fierce, down-to-the-wire battle with eventual winner Josef Newgarden, Grosjean lined up a couple of late runs at the leader but could never quite connect.
    Nathan Brown, The Indianapolis Star, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Pittman and company are out to find ways to reverse their fortunes in down-to-the-wire games, and a big part of that is converting on short-yardage plays and in the red zone and getting off the field more often on third and fourth downs on defense.
    Tom Murphy, Arkansas Online, 4 Aug. 2023
  • Jacobs is notorious for down-to-the-wire decisions, and the beauty for his 40th anniversary show was no exception.
    Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue, 3 Feb. 2024
  • Westfield ended Carmel’s seven-year sectional title reign last year in a down-to-the-wire 59-54 sectional championship game.
    The Indianapolis Star, 28 Feb. 2023
  • Through two full rounds, these playoffs have given us down-to-the-wire finishes, big time upsets and huge individual performances.
    The Arizona Republic, 24 Feb. 2023
  • With the country’s top high school athletes competing, the New Balance Nationals indoor track meet produces down-to-the-wire finishes and shattered personal records in nearly every event.
    Matty Wasserman, BostonGlobe.com, 11 Mar. 2023

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