phrasal

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.

This rhetoric sounds nice—“free expression” and “in a democracy” are the phrasal equivalents of American-flag lapel pins—but it doesn’t amount to much.

From The New Yorker

Second, there are phrases, sometimes called “phrasal verbs”, that cannot be understood by knowing the component words: consider bear down or bear up.

From Economist

Cline loves phrasal fragments: “The dark maritime cypress packed tight outside the window, the twitch of salt air.”

From The New Yorker

So while dynamics and phrasal attacks rarely rose above 18th-century decorum, the care over volume never felt timid or academic, but rather revealed the deep wells of inwardness and rumination woven throughout the scores.

From Washington Post

“But the people who were recorded in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s still had access to phrasal and lexical complexity because they used the language all the time, and the last speakers didn’t.”

From New York Times