How to Use abrade in a Sentence

abrade

verb
  • Plus, the straps and hooks can abrade the paint at the edges of trunk lids and rear hatches.
    — Bradley Ford, Popular Mechanics, 26 July 2023
  • Like dirt, those teeth will abrade fabrics during a wash cycle.
    — Joe Lindsey, Outside Online, 17 July 2021
  • The important thing is to abrade off shiny spots, rust, deep scratches, and the like.
    — Dan Roe, Popular Mechanics, 20 Oct. 2019
  • Use firm but gentle pressure, being careful not to abrade or snag the yarn.
    — Jolie Kerr, Esquire, 24 Apr. 2017
  • Loose-fitting covers can flap in the wind and abrade wicker surfaces.
    — Colleen Sullivan, Better Homes & Gardens, 29 Dec. 2025
  • If used, stakes should not abrade or constrict the trunk and should be fully removed after six to twelve months.
    — Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 9 Jan. 2025
  • The surfaces are raw, abraded, sometimes buckled and creased.
    — Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug. 2019
  • After digging into it with the pet brush, there were no snags or evidence that it had been abraded.
    — Kathleen Felton, Better Homes & Gardens, 31 Oct. 2023
  • Using a drill and a wire metal brush attachment, abrade the wood by running the brush along the surface.
    — Hannah Bruneman, Better Homes & Gardens, 19 Sep. 2022
  • Pockmarks and brittle edges show the abrading action of millennia of wind and rain.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Each time clothes rub against each other in the washer, the friction abrades the fibers slightly causing the surface to look dull.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 8 Nov. 2025
  • Prior to snapping its selfie, the rover had just finished abrading the rocky Arethusa outcrop.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 13 May 2026
  • Another great crossover from the auto-body industry is the scouring pastes that clean and abrade a surface at the same time.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 11 Mar. 2019
  • Another great crossover from the auto-body industry is rubbing compound that cleans and abrades the surface at the same time.
    — Joseph Truini, Popular Mechanics, 26 Apr. 2020
  • Gently dab at the stain until it's gone, taking care not to scrub, as friction can abrade the material and damage the lampshade.
    — Jolie Kerr, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 July 2024
  • That helpless, screaming, wetting, nipple-abrading bundle of joy wouldn’t really change the woman who birthed it.
    — Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 31 May 2018
  • It’s believed this phenomenon is thanks to the fast flow of the water that abrades the rocky coast, dislodging more minerals into the ocean.
    — Mark Ellwood, Robb Report, 27 July 2024
  • However, really wallop it, especially with a hard or sharp object, and the plastic will abrade, cut or tear.
    — John Decker, Popular Mechanics, 7 Feb. 2017
  • Wine Away was easy to remove from fabrics without excessive blotting or rinsing that can abrade or damage fabrics.
    — Carolyn Forté, Good Housekeeping, 1 Sep. 2022
  • This parodic picaresque finds Sturges at the zenith of his formidable powers to abrade and delight.
    — Washington Post, 31 July 2021
  • The findings from the cave also included a number of pumice stones that the Neanderthals likely used as an abrading tool to sharpen other tools.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 15 Jan. 2020
  • The authors proposed that Ganlea (as well as the other amphipithecids) often fed on hard seeds and nuts that abraded the canines of these primates.
    — Brian Switek, WIRED, 1 July 2009
  • In stonewashing, the stones organically abrade the fabric to further loosen the weave and increase overall flexibility and softness.
    — Madeleine Luckel, Vogue, 9 July 2017
  • The ash was particularly angular (see below), meaning its ability to abrade aircraft was higher than typical ash.
    — Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 26 Apr. 2011
  • The atrium is gigantic and awe-inspiring, a bleached riff on Utah’s sandstone landscape, full of arches, bridges and rounded forms seemingly abraded by water, wind or time.
    — Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 4 May 2023
  • Still, that box must contain gadgetry that would be the envy of 007 - fadeaways abrading opposing hopes like a sander, twisting layups augering through the defense, dunks slamming like hammers.
    — Bill Livingston, cleveland.com, 7 May 2018
  • Nearly two dozen of the photographs in the exhibition are vintage prints; another 58 are newly printed from negatives abraded and speckled by time.
    — Jason Farago, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2018
  • For example, stone washing, which uses pumice stones and water to physically abrade the indigo dyestuff from the fabric surface, can be replaced by enzyme washing in low-liquid ratio machines.
    — Sj Studio, Sourcing Journal, 5 Dec. 2024
  • The cinematography, by Christopher Messina, feels as abraded as Linda’s psyche.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2025
  • Meanwhile, making art in New York also necessitates making a living, which for Wyeth means working art-adjacent day jobs in commercial spaces that abrade his practice.
    — Lauren Michele Jackson, New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2025

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