How to Use anvil in a Sentence

anvil

noun
  • Why hang around and wait for that anvil to drop on your head?
    — Chris Cillizza, CNN, 14 Dec. 2017
  • Time for the anvil to drop on Arm&Hammer.
    — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 17 Oct. 2025
  • My chest felt as if there were an anvil sitting on top of it.
    — Deborah Copaken, The Atlantic, 27 Mar. 2020
  • That’s like leaving your anvil on a seesaw.
    — Andrew Baggarly, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Only a sharp strike on the face of the anvil was such to cause joint failure.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 4 Aug. 2023
  • Anvil pruners have a straight blade that closes against a backstop, or small anvil.
    — Luke Miller, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 Oct. 2024
  • Often the top of the smoke column flattens to take the shape of an anvil.
    — Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 20 July 2021
  • Try crushing them with a big hammer, using a large rock as an anvil.
    — Tim MacWelch, Outdoor Life, 26 Feb. 2021
  • Women can flex their muscles in the skillet throw and men can chuck anvils.
    — Washington Post, 2 Jan. 2020
  • And as more enthusiasts join the fray, the price of anvils has risen.
    — Amelia Nierenberg, New York Times, 25 Dec. 2023
  • But like an anvil sinking to the bottom of the sea, there was no stopping it.
    — Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press, 21 June 2021
  • Digging revealed two large, heavy stones whose sharp edges and cracks pointed to use as anvils.
    — Traci Watson, USA TODAY, 26 Apr. 2017
  • But social media can be like an anvil and a pair of underwear.
    — Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes, 18 Dec. 2022
  • Often the top of the smoke column flattens into the shape of an anvil.
    — Paul Douglas, Star Tribune, 22 July 2021
  • And the bones and stones were found in two areas, each roughly centered on what’s thought to be an anvil.
    — Malcolm Ritter, The Seattle Times, 26 Apr. 2017
  • Nor did hammering the head on the anvil provide enough shock to break the handle-head joint.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 4 Aug. 2023
  • The weight of this game on the Dolphins was oppressive, heavy as hot anvils.
    — Miami Herald, 14 Sep. 2025
  • The basalt tools include mace-type objects and anvils, which would have been utilized to crack and crush plant foods.
    — Newsweek, 8 Jan. 2025
  • Tombs, anvils, boats, villages, guns, portraits, fiddle toys.
    — Literary Hub, 3 Nov. 2025
  • In this case, stunning can be read in a literal sense, like having an anvil fall on your head.
    — Brendan McAleer, Car and Driver, 21 Apr. 2023
  • Anvil pruners have one straight blade that closes against a flat surface, like a hammer hitting an anvil.
    — Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune, 3 Dec. 2022
  • The site’s capuchins use quartzite cobbles as hammerstones, and tree limbs and loose stones as anvils.
    — The Economist, 27 June 2019
  • Position the bar stock on the vise’s anvil and deliver a sharp blow to the chisel.
    — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 7 June 2023
  • One of the best and most distinctive albums this year sounded like a falling anvil wreathed in flames.
    — Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Look for the dome-like protrusion shooting out above the anvil of the thunderstorm.
    — Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2019
  • Even so, none of these ratios is even close to how mercury is twice as dense as the anvil in Reeder’s video.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 18 Feb. 2020
  • Some people have learned to throw clay or make their own suits; others bend iron over an anvil and weld pieces of steel together.
    — Amelia Nierenberg, New York Times, 25 Dec. 2023
  • On the other hand, anvil pruners have a cutting blade that closes against a flat edge for a chopping cut on dead, woody stems.
    — Jodi Torpey/ Special To The Denver Post, The Denver Post, 14 Apr. 2017
  • This may be to a storm’s anvil being blown downwind, and carrying with it just enough charge to touch off a sporadic bolt.
    — Matthew Cappucci, Washington Post, 27 June 2018
  • The anvil heads nestle together to form a kind of secondary surface above the skin that fluid can flow across.
    — The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 26 Mar. 2024

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