How to Use enemy in a Sentence

enemy

noun
  • He made a lot of enemies during the course of his career.
  • Tradition is the enemy of progress.
  • People think that film is in some ways the enemy of the word.
    — New York Times, 20 Oct. 2022
  • The true enemies, in his world, are the culture warriors of the present.
    — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 5 Sep. 2024
  • Many vow to persist through the hardships and not give in to the enemy.
    — Andrew E. Kramer Finbarr O’Reilly, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2022
  • Nobody has the time to sit by the river and wait for the body of their enemy and its clone to float by.
    — Joe Queenan, WSJ, 16 June 2022
  • The two fight off enemies who try and fail to prevent them from getting to the vault.
    — Vulture, 8 July 2023
  • Even the idea that there's no true name for the movie's enemy somehow works.
    — Adrianna Freedman, Good Housekeeping, 4 June 2022
  • But the greatest enemy of ECPR — of the brain, really — is the clock.
    — Helen Ouyang, New York Times, 27 Mar. 2024
  • Biden’s mouth also turned out to be his worst enemy at the time.
    — David Mark, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 5 July 2024
  • In other words, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good—every bit of progress helps.
    — Jeff Wilser, Time, 13 Oct. 2022
  • Mark Schein sings from the back row, aware that many of the people in the other pews view him as their enemy.
    — Dan Gearino, ABC News, 29 July 2022
  • The crew burned the remains of the warship to make sure its guns did not fall into enemy hands.
    — Stephen Smith, CBS News, 15 Mar. 2024
  • Though only some egg white stuck to the pan at the end, oil splatters are an enemy to a clean kitchen.
    — Giovana Gelhoren, PEOPLE.com, 15 Apr. 2022
  • But for many artists, the queen was more cipher than an enemy.
    — Los Angeles Times, 12 Sep. 2022
  • Westbrook stomped past the Detroit bench, chirping with the enemy and egging on the crowd.
    — Bennett Durando, The Denver Post, 29 Dec. 2024
  • That enemy may not be real, but the danger of those lies is.
    — Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 24 Nov. 2023
  • Chill the dough to cool the butter — warm butter is the enemy of flakes — and to give yourself a moment of self-care.
    — Allison Robicelli, Washington Post, 8 Feb. 2023
  • In Jack's mind, even the slightest change to his daily routine is the enemy.
    — Mike Wagner, The Courier-Journal, 22 June 2023
  • But the difference is colossal, at times more than 10 times less than that of the enemy.
    — John Bacon, USA TODAY, 27 July 2023
  • And while Fury is trying to stop Gravik’s rebels in the show, Jackson emphasizes that the Skrulls are not the enemy.
    — Sydney Odman, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 June 2023
  • But, of course, to sign up for the draft, to pull the trigger, these too come with consequences not only for the enemy but for the self.
    — David Perry, Washington Post, 9 Dec. 2022
  • In this way, the person before us is no longer an enemy at all.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Oct. 2022
  • The enemy is in Dusseldorf, while our army is in, say, Koblenz.
    — Maxim Osipov, The Atlantic, 16 May 2022
  • With bosses, the respawn point is set to right outside their room, with no enemies to worry about on the way back.
    — Scott McRae, Rolling Stone, 24 Mar. 2025
  • The Russian fleet is losing the naval war off Ukraine ... to an enemy with no warships.
    — David Axe, Forbes, 2 May 2022
  • But, turns out, Scrooge and Santa are old friends, then enemies.
    — Jake Ciely, The Athletic, 25 Dec. 2024
  • It is said that no plan survives first contact with the enemy.
    — Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 11 Nov. 2022
  • The 50-kilogram Hellfire missiles are small but pack quite a punch, designed to take out targets like enemy tanks.
    — Ellie Cook — Reporting From Sodankylä, Northern Finland, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 May 2025
  • The absence of cloud cover that day exposed the Liberators even more to enemy fire.
    — Linda Dudik, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 May 2025

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