How to Use motley in a Sentence

motley

adjective

• The riverbed sinks and turns to stone, and a motley beard of roots shrouds the banks.
  — Carson Vaughan, Outside Online, 27 Jan. 2020
• Think of Shaun of the Dead’s motley crew holed up in the Winchester pub.
  — Josh Wilbur, Wired, 29 Mar. 2020
• The motley crew of cars lined up at the icy starting line, engines revving.
  — Katie Galioto, Star Tribune, 27 Feb. 2021
• At the rear of those thin-skinned skyscrapers comes a pack of motley buildings.
  — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 30 Sep. 2021
• By the end, a motley band of warriors has been assembled to fight evil.
  — New York Times, 14 May 2018
• Starches — legumes, tubers, grains, to name a few — are a motley bunch.
  — New York Times, 6 Aug. 2021
• In 1967, a motley crew of dudes set off down the peninsula in search of glory and bragging rights.
  — Davey G. Johnson, Car and Driver, 9 Oct. 2017
• On the right, the mushroom cloud of a bomb looms over swirls of factory smoke, the scene a motley milieu of muddied grays and browns.
  — Angelica Aboulhosn, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Nov. 2023
• The walls were adorned with a motley assortment of cowboy kitsch and sketches of John Wayne.
  — oregonlive, 13 Nov. 2019
• Everyone in the audience sees their own cats in the motley crew on-stage.
  — Dan Nosowitz, Cosmopolitan, 12 Sep. 2017
• With this motley assortment of flawed teams, there’s still a chance the Brewers could sneak into the wild-card game.
  — Jon Tayler, SI.com, 10 Sep. 2019
• The rest of the motley cast hardly inspires trust or confidence.
  — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 24 Oct. 2019
• The starters at the Temple Club are a carnival of textures, in the form of motley salads (goi) and chewy rice-paper spring rolls (nem).
  — Chris Ying, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 Dec. 2017
• But a motley though potent array of industry groups has aligned against the package (see the bill text here), and its ranks could swell in the days ahead.
  — Tory Newmyer, Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2017
• Calderoni goes back to her apartment and opens her windows, eyeing a motley crew of neighbors.
  — Barry Samaha, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 Nov. 2020
• So that’s exciting to know about this group, this random, motley crew.
  — Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 June 2017
• Having worked solo for so long, Boba now has a motley crew of his own to guard Mos Espa.
  — Lauren Morgan, EW.com, 9 Feb. 2022
• Some might say the Trump-Biden matchup was preordained, given the Democrats’ motley crew of candidates.
  — Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 8 May 2019
• Enlarge / Bonnet's motley crew is ready to loot and plunder.
  — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 19 Jan. 2022
• The futuristic building was out of place in the motley district.
  — Jon Talton, The Seattle Times, 19 Aug. 2017
• Asia is still grappling with that awkward mix, four centuries after the EIC’s motley crew sailed from the foggy Thames.
  — The Economist, 10 Oct. 2019
• The film seems to be saying: Why would a motley crew of super-pets — or, for that matter, the Justice League — be anything but light and cheeky and, at times, ridiculous?
  — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 26 July 2022
• Their motley group of wide receivers combined for two catches on five targets for 18 yards.
  — Jonas Shaffer, Baltimore Sun, 1 Jan. 2023
• Here is the motley collection of folks who are invested in making these clothes.
  — Robin Givhan, Washington Post, 9 Sep. 2019
• Dash is among the all-too-believable characters who make up the IPA's leaders and motley recruits.
  — Richard Lipez, Dallas News, 20 Aug. 2019
• Tune in to find out what various kerfuffles the quirky former hostage and her New York motley crew are causing this year.
  — Noor Brara, Vogue, 21 May 2018
• But this motley breed, borrowing the tools of each trade, is pulling craft culture together.
  — Keith Flanagan, USA TODAY, 12 June 2018
• This is a motley list of parents, some of which are mutually exclusive or at least very hard to square.
  — Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 7 May 2018
• To go back to the beginning is to see him over and over again rambling through the mountains in his fool’s motley that separates him forever from the world of the living.
  — Mark Hutchinson, Harper's magazine, 16 Sep. 2019
• The subject matter is grim, but the tone is motley and irreverent, veering from maudlin realism to campy notes on the camps.
  — The New Yorker, 29 Nov. 2022

Last Updated: 9 Jun 2024