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
  • Some this motley crew have left already (Hicks, Bannon) or seem on their way out (McMaster).
    Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 5 Mar. 2018

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