How to Use Russian roulette in a Sentence

Russian roulette

noun
  • For a super cool entrance, make an arch in the shape of a Russian roulette board.
    — Seventeen.com Editors, Seventeen, 1 Dec. 2022
  • Young adults deserve choices that don’t feel like Russian roulette.
    — Jahan Marcu, Rolling Stone, 23 Oct. 2025
  • For years, Archer Avenue has been a game of Russian roulette.
    — Yunus Emre Tozal, Chicago Tribune, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Choosing one is no longer like playing Russian roulette with your tastebuds.
    — Bloomberg, Mercury News, 13 Jan. 2026
  • Clearing the enemy from the city, house by house, was a game of Russian roulette played on a grand scale.
    — Elliott Ackerman, Wired, 30 Oct. 2020
  • His regular blood tests feel like playing Russian roulette.
    — Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 25 Apr. 2026
  • More punches ensue, then a vicious game of Russian roulette with an old woman.
    — Andy Hoglund, EW.com, 5 Mar. 2023
  • This backfills how Reacher was able to play Russian roulette thrice without dying.
    — Chris Klimek, Vulture, 20 Feb. 2025
  • The governor is playing Russian roulette with people’s lives.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 2 Apr. 2026
  • After the Recruiter ups the Russian roulette odds of dying to five in six, Woo-seok plays two rocks.
    — Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 26 Dec. 2024
  • Russian roulette is a deadly game involving a single bullet placed into a revolver.
    — Mike Stunson, Kansas City Star, 6 Oct. 2025
  • The challenge is to ensure that your moves are calculated and not just a financial game of Russian roulette.
    — Bola Sol, refinery29.com, 6 Feb. 2024
  • That should change, immediately, because this is starting to feel like Russian roulette.
    — Howard Kurtz, Fox News, 17 Sep. 2024
  • The 17-year-old was mimicking the Russian roulette scene while watching the movie Deer Hunter in her bedroom.
    — Marissa Charles, Peoplemag, 2 May 2024
  • Experts say being an addict these days is like playing Russian roulette, with illicit fentanyl the bullet in the chamber.
    — Gromer Jeffers Jr., Dallas News, 17 Sep. 2023
  • At a time when Facebook is bleeding users and stock value, and inflation is rampant, this seems a strange time to play Russian roulette with the economy.
    — Robert H. Bork Jr., National Review, 11 Feb. 2022
  • The doctor compared mixing fentanyl with alcohol or other substances to playing Russian roulette.
    — Sean Emery, Oc Register, 6 Dec. 2025
  • In 2009, Italian surgeons described the case of a young man whose explosion came about in the course of 'a game of Russian roulette'.
    — Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 9 Oct. 2013
  • Smalligan said skipping a vaccine that is 95 percent effective is like playing Russian roulette.
    — Lee Roop | [email protected], al, 4 Jan. 2021
  • Borges and Morais further claimed that the gunmen would torment them by playing Russian roulette with their son, although he was never physically hurt.
    — Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 19 Sep. 2025
  • Luckily, or perhaps not-so-luckily, a secret Russian roulette ring desperately needs their services.
    — Marta Balaga, Variety, 22 Sep. 2023
  • Though generally sweet and mild, their fame stems from the fact that the occasional pepper will be fiery hot – lending a Russian roulette element of surprise to eating them.
    — Jon Yeomans, CNN Money, 7 June 2025
  • Inconsistent potency makes doing fentanyl—already up to 50 times stronger than heroine—like playing a game of Russian roulette.
    — Krista Stevens, Longreads, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Inconsistent potency makes doing fentanyl—already up to 50 times stronger than heroine—like playing a game of Russian roulette.
    — Longreads, 11 Aug. 2023
  • Investigators say Bell shot himself playing Russian roulette.
    — CBS News, 7 May 2022
  • So when the holidays roll around, that office Secret Santa feels like playing Russian roulette with reputations.
    — Cristian Esteban, Rolling Stone, 31 Oct. 2023
  • Decision-makers in the Middle East should ask themselves whether playing Russian roulette with nuclear reactors is worth the risk.
    — Bennett Ramberg, Foreign Affairs, 25 May 2015
  • Eventually, Gi-hun finds The Salesman and the two play another deadly game of Russian roulette, leading the salesman to take his own life.
    — Esther Kang, People.com, 26 Dec. 2024
  • School drop-off every morning is like the Squid Game—every day fewer & fewer people & whoever is left gets herded into the cafeteria to play Russian roulette over lunch.
    — Vanessa Etienne, PEOPLE.com, 10 Jan. 2022
  • An 18-year-old was kidnapped by three men and forced to play Russian roulette because of his dating relationship, according to Arkansas police and news reports.
    — Mike Stunson, Kansas City Star, 6 Oct. 2025

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