draconian

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Hockney grumbled constantly about the iron grip of draconian forces in America: in particular the new lack of tolerance for public smoking.

From BBC • Jun. 12, 2026

Nevertheless, the city council has proposed draconian measures to raise business costs even further, requiring one employee for every three self-checkout lanes and a 15-item maximum at self-checkout.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026

Everything fell: oil prices, the dollar, even gold, because investors were shocked by how unsophisticated and draconian the policy was.

From Salon • Apr. 5, 2026

His son, Sebastien Lai, said the "draconian prison sentence is devastating for our family and life-threatening for my father".

From Barron's • Mar. 6, 2026

Those and other draconian measures must have contributed to the spread of North China’s Sino-Tibetan languages over most of China, and to reducing the Miao-Yao and other language families to their present fragmented distributions.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond