How to Use second-guess in a Sentence

second-guess

verb
  • Kind of hard to second-guess that move, but the Bears will be armed with two second-rounders in 2025.
    Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune, 18 Sep. 2024
  • Give yourself time to get over the second-guessing and try not to change the story.
    Meredith Goldstein, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Sep. 2023
  • There was no time to — No time to second-guess yourself. Or let that fear settle in.
    Vulture, 22 May 2023
  • Southers second-guessed some aspects of the initiative in a 2017 Times op-ed.
    Libor Jany, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2024
  • One warned Ziani not to second-guess a professor of Gino’s stature in this way.
    Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2023
  • Of course there will be second-guessing after any loss.
    Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Scott wasn’t a man prone to second-guessing himself, but those doubts wouldn’t relent.
    Chris Nashawaty, WIRED, 30 July 2024
  • Their expertise can save you the time and headache of second-guessing a large purchase — or steer you away from an ill-fitting piece from the start.
    Ryan Conner, Dallas News, 11 May 2023
  • At this stage, knob twiddling and second-guessing often sets in.
    Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, 6 Feb. 2024
  • Rocky spends much of the film brooding, moping, second-guessing himself.
    Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2023
  • In practical terms, scrapping Chevron would transfer that power not to Congress or the people, but to the courts that second-guess them.
    Matt Ford, The New Republic, 1 June 2023
  • The administration also argued that the lower court judges were wrong to second-guess the FDA’s judgment about the safety of a drug that has been used for decades.
    David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times, 21 Apr. 2023
  • Toward the end of the journey, my second-guessing snowballed into a crisis of conscience.
    Chris Wallace, Travel + Leisure, 16 Oct. 2024
  • What was just second nature for you before, now you’re second-guessing.
    Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, 18 July 2023
  • In an interview last May, Beed’s civil surgeon at the time, Suresh Sable, said the government should not second-guess doctors.
    Qadri Inzamam Saumya Khandelwal, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2024
  • Don’t second-guess yourself; trust and believe in your abilities.
    Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, 20 Sep. 2024
  • Instead of second-guessing themselves, their attitude is to always take the chance.
    Stephanie Sengwe, Peoplemag, 26 July 2024
  • Reubens’s first take on Pee-wee on the improv stage was riskier, intended entirely for grown-ups who were just old enough to second-guess their own childhoods.
    Hank Stuever, Washington Post, 31 July 2023
  • Both situations will be easy to second-guess this winter.
    Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug. 2023
  • In a decision that would be second-guessed for years to come, Twitter also shut down Vine, its video app that had popularized the concept of short, bite-sized videos.
    Kurt Wagner, Fortune, 21 Feb. 2024
  • Unlike in previous years, there is no hesitation at the rim or second-guessing his decision to get the ball and go.
    Shayna Rubin, The Mercury News, 31 Jan. 2024
  • The stakes were so high that, personally, I was stressed out the entire time — second-guessing songs, second-guessing the performances.
    Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 27 Sep. 2024
  • In prior seasons, Ryan had a tendency to second-guess himself and fixate on his own mistakes.
    Jacob Steinberg, Baltimore Sun, 22 June 2023
  • After a pause, Graziadei started to second-guess himself.
    Dana Rose Falcone, Peoplemag, 7 Feb. 2024
  • Asked if throwing a fastball, his third-best pitch this season, at the game’s crucial moment, Bochy stopped short of second-guessing pitch selection.
    Evan Grant, Dallas News, 19 Sep. 2023
  • Those moves also led to fierce opposition, and some second-guessing.
    Mitch Smith, BostonGlobe.com, 18 July 2023
  • But Spears’s new memoir makes clear that this shaming and second-guessing, using the language of care and concern, is deeply conventional.
    Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 24 Oct. 2023
  • Yet, beyond the usual second-guessing that will come with reviewing the videotape, Shanahan has no regrets.
    USA TODAY, 12 Feb. 2024
  • The difference between an Olympic medal and three years of second-guessing, wondering, lamenting: just one-hundredth of a second.
    Rick Maese, Washington Post, 27 July 2024
  • The state Department of Justice had argued in a 35-page petition that the 9th Circuit wrongly second-guessed the state trial court judge who barred Crouse’s confession.
    oregonlive, 25 Apr. 2023

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