How to Use mercenary in a Sentence
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The first is a deeper dive into the world of the mercenary.
— Rob Wieland, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2023 -
The Boss takes a job with a local mercenary-for-hire group to make ends meet, and the roommates do odd jobs for the local gangs.
— Sarah Leboeuf, Ars Technica, 21 July 2022 -
Most of the mercenaries were soon captured, though three were killed in a firefight.
— Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023 -
That leaves open the question of who will lead his brutal band of mercenaries.
— Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 24 June 2023 -
Putin’s mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin had launched a mutiny.
— Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2023 -
Who, it should be mentioned, is also after the M.I.A. item and has his own band of mercenaries to back him up.
— David Fear, Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2023 -
In general, his story is that he is killed while on a job as a mercenary and revived by Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon.
— Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2022 -
But that alliance didn't keep it from being razed by papal mercenaries, and by 1400, the monastery was all but abandoned.
— Elizabeth Heath, Travel + Leisure, 25 Jan. 2024 -
Late in the season, Frank Grillo plays a badass mercenary who teaches the fictionalized Paul how to shoot, fight, etc.
— Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 28 Dec. 2022 -
The Norfolk officers, Catherine and Lamar, are noble go-to-ground types — in contrast to the mercenaries ruled by greed.
— Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2023 -
And the continent has proved a strong market for Russian weapons and mercenaries.
— Paul Sonne, BostonGlobe.com, 26 July 2023 -
The mercenaries were offered a choice to retire from the service, move to Belarus or sign new contracts with the Defense Ministry.
— Yuras Karmanau The Associated Press, Arkansas Online, 30 Sep. 2023 -
Rather than a defeat for Madrid, Mbappé’s decision has been cast as that of a mercenary and a traitor, a turncoat who gave his word to Pérez and then betrayed him.
— New York Times, 27 May 2022 -
Since the fall of 2022, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and mercenaries have been killed or wounded attempting to capture the city.
— Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 23 Feb. 2023 -
Its dictator of three decades, Alexander Lukashenko, claimed to have helped avert a recent mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group last month.
— Patrick Smith, NBC News, 10 July 2023 -
Some people will perceive you as a traitor or mercenary for leaving for a bigger payday.
— Jack Kelly, Forbes, 29 Dec. 2022 -
The spectral mercenary proved enough of a hit with fans that Marvel kept bringing him back for guest appearances and backup stories.
— Rob Salkowitz, Forbes, 15 Apr. 2022 -
Because mercenaries with some equipment and weapons were very close to Moscow.
— ABC News, 9 July 2023 -
The Russian military’s reliance on the mercenaries who made up the Wagner Group was key.
— Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times, 13 July 2023 -
Gary Motsek, then a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, was alarmed by the emergence of what seemed to be a new breed of Russian mercenary.
— Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, 30 May 2022 -
Ilyas was kidnapped as a child by an African mercenary and eventually sent to a German mission school.
— Ron Charles, Washington Post, 23 Aug. 2022 -
For a quick run-down: Moon Knight is actually a former mercenary named Marc Spector.
— Milan Polk, Men's Health, 30 Mar. 2022 -
Russian forces led by mercenaries from the Wagner Group captured Bakhmut in May.
— Samya Kullab, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Sep. 2023 -
Nearly half of the soldiers who were killed were mercenaries, officials said.
— Mike Brest, Washington Examiner, 5 May 2023 -
In some cases, children are sent out of Syria to fight as mercenaries in other conflicts.
— Hogir Abdo and Abby Sewell, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 June 2023 -
Russia said he would be exiled to Belarus and his mercenaries would be moved under the military.
— Phil McCausland, NBC News, 27 June 2023 -
The Kremlin on Monday for the first time revealed that such a meeting had taken place, stressing that the mercenaries pledged allegiance to the Russian leader.
— Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, 14 July 2023 -
Damon played a European mercenary who is forced to team up with imperial Chinese forces to fend off an alien threat.
— Zack Sharf, Variety, 12 July 2023 -
The man was from Colombia, the rancher said, part of a growing number of mercenaries who experts say have brought bomb-making technology to rural Mexico.
— Keegan Hamilton, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2024 -
Unable to die, this team utilizes their talents by working as mercenaries for various mortal employers.
— Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 17 Jan. 2024
- His motives in choosing a career were purely mercenary.
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Members of the mercenary group played a major role in Russia’s fight for the city in eastern Ukraine.
— Claire Parker, Washington Post, 2 June 2023 -
The mercenary group has forces stationed across the border in eastern Libya.
— WIRED, 22 Sep. 2023 -
The recent mutiny launched by the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin suggests that the war may destabilize Putin’s rule at home.
— Justin Logan and Joshua Shifrinson, Foreign Affairs, 7 July 2023 -
In the game, a mercenary outlaw named V is on the search for a one-of-a-kind implant that doubles as a key to immortality.
— Abbey White, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Oct. 2023 -
The art world is a mercenary place where grudges often give way to expedience.
— Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023 -
Putin unleashed a mercenary force, the Wagner Group, which used convicts to try to take the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
— Doyle McManuswashington Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 15 Jan. 2023 -
Prigozhin has publicly accused Shoigu of trying to destroy the mercenary group.
— Mary Ilyushina, Washington Post, 27 June 2023 -
Over the space of several days, a South African mercenary group evacuated some of them.
— Ghazi Balkiz, CNN, 10 Oct. 2022 -
The mercenary leader may also have gone to Moscow, the president said.
— Bloomberg, Fortune, 6 July 2023 -
Joe Russo wrote the script after penning the first film, which starred Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, a mercenary grieving hte death of his son who finds a chance at redemption.
— Aaron Couch, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Sep. 2022 -
After the death of Russia’s Wagner chief, what happens to his mercenary army?
— Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2023 -
Many of their clients don’t need a mercenary complainer so much as some basic instruction in how to complain.
— Steve Hendrix, Anchorage Daily News, 26 Dec. 2022 -
Based on Assayas’ 1996 film of the same name, this eight-episode series for HBO is about the galactic highs and sub-basement lows of being a creative person in a mercenary world.
— San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Aug. 2022 -
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, staged a mutiny, calling into question Putin’s grip on Russia.
— Samuel Charap, Foreign Affairs, 13 July 2023 -
By the time the Russians took Bakhmut, their forces were exhausted, and the Wagner mercenary group that led the fight was in open rebellion against the Russian ministry of defense.
— Josh Holder, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2024 -
But Glazer is more interested in Nazi-ism as a mercenary act.
— Jada Yuan, Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2023 -
The mercenary army chief was headed home to St. Petersburg with nine others onboard.
— Alan Cullison, WSJ, 22 Dec. 2023 -
However, other countries have turned to the Russian mercenary force known as Wagner, which has been on the front lines of the war in Ukraine but also has a presence in Africa.
— Chris Megerian and Sam Mednick, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Mar. 2023 -
By now, Marsalek had fully entrenched himself in the affairs of his Russian mercenary friend, Stanislav Petlinsky.
— Ben Taub, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2023 -
Wagner mercenary group fighters in a photo said to be in Soledar and released Wednesday.
— Patrick Smith, NBC News, 13 Jan. 2023 -
In January, not far from here, a man claiming to be a defector from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group ran across a frozen river in the dead of the polar night.
— Emily Rauhala, Anchorage Daily News, 18 July 2023 -
Anderson didn’t want to sound mercenary or, worse, cheerful.
— Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 16 Sep. 2022 -
Within hours of the second coup, the head of Russia’s shadowy mercenary outfit, the Wagner Group, was among the first to congratulate the new junta leader.
— Farai Mutsaka, ajc, 16 Dec. 2022 -
Meanwhile, Russia's Wagner mercenary group has moved into the country, flaunting shipments of weapons the same day French troops left the country.
— Anders Hagstrom, Fox News, 11 Sep. 2022 -
Early on, he was recorded recruiting prisoners to accept contracts with his mercenary force to fight on the front lines.
— Noah Robertson, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 June 2023 -
The song plays throughout the trailer as John Wick proceeds to do, well, John Wick things — shooting, stabbing, and punching his way through an endless barrage of mercenary killers and crime bosses.
— Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 16 Feb. 2023 -
The mercenary leader has a track record of misleading statements and did not provide evidence for his statements.
— Josh Pennington, CNN, 30 Apr. 2023 -
As things stand now, a genocidal militia group backed by Russia’s Wagner (mercenary) group is on the march to defeat Sudan’s army.
— Paul Tilsley, Fox News, 26 Nov. 2023 -
Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, has threatened to withdraw his forces from Bakhmut, which would leave the city vulnerable.
— Siobhán O'Grady, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Laris Karklis, Samuel Granados, The Washington Post, Anchorage Daily News, 7 May 2023
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mercenary.' 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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