How to Use body blow in a Sentence

body blow

noun
  • Both teams made runs, the tension growing with each body blow.
    — Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 3 Apr. 2022
  • That said, doing nothing would be a body blow to the Fed’scredibility.
    — Larry Light, Fortune, 29 July 2019
  • The veto of the bill was a body blow to a union already struggling to stay on its feet.
    — Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 27 July 2022
  • Ali went forward stiffly, his trunk and hips deeply bruised from Frazier’s body blows.
    — Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2025
  • How quickly might the economy get back on its feet from the tremendous body blows?
    — Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 2020
  • The two fought for position down low, often exchanging body blows and hard fouls.
    — Akeem Glaspie, Indianapolis Star, 27 Aug. 2019
  • For an already ailing sector, the pandemic has been a body blow.
    — Niharika Sharma, Quartz India, 6 Apr. 2020
  • But on Friday night, that excitement was dealt a massive body blow.
    — Esfandiar Baraheni, Forbes, 2 Mar. 2024
  • Tillerson, Dunford, and Mattis would not take those body blows for much longer.
    — Carol D. Leonnig, Philip Rucker, Anchorage Daily News, 17 Jan. 2020
  • Remember the body blow of injustice, and don’t get mad — get hungry.
    — Pat Beall, Sun Sentinel, 9 May 2025
  • The other deals with the sweat and guts and blood regimen of stick and move, jabs, body blows and uppercuts.
    — Rubén Rosario, Twin Cities, 15 Nov. 2019
  • Stevenson dropped Padley three times in the ninth round with body blows before his corner threw in the towel.
    — Trent Reinsmith, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2025
  • The surest way to demoralize Green Bay is with an early body blow.
    — Jerry McDonald, The Mercury News, 20 Jan. 2024
  • McCain's injury was just the latest in a series of body blows in that regard.
    — Bryan Toporek, Forbes, 16 Dec. 2024
  • The Lakers simply absorbed the latest body blow to their championship hopes and played on.
    — Greg Beacham, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Apr. 2023
  • Yet the restrictions have not been the body blow that Western officials hoped for—or anything near it.
    — Hanna Notte, Foreign Affairs, 6 Oct. 2023
  • Ali covered his face and tried to absorb Frazier’s metronomic body blows, aiming to tire him.
    — Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2025
  • On Wednesday, Justice Barrett dealt the chief justice a body blow.
    — Adam Liptak, New York Times, 26 Nov. 2020
  • For the traditionalists, the decision to scrap the current iconic look is like a body blow.
    — Ken Goe, OregonLive.com, 19 Apr. 2018
  • While Durant was dealing body blows, the Warriors' role players worked off the ball to find openings at the rim.
    — Rob Mahoney, SI.com, 7 June 2018
  • Most of the industry seems to view the measure as a body blow that will hurt tech companies’ ability to hire the best talent.
    — Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 22 Sep. 2025
  • But the worst body blows to its business came from the broken health care system—and the damage extends far beyond one small drugmaker.
    — Maria Aspan, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2023
  • In the case of Russia, however, a rapid brain drain would be a zero-sum body blow for a variety of reasons.
    — Alex Salkever, Fortune, 4 Mar. 2022
  • The Pac-12 took some body blows last weekend, starting with Oregon’s loss to Auburn.
    — oregonlive, 2 Sep. 2019
  • But in the long run, the team with the better talent can withstand a couple of body blows and bounce back, and that’s what Baltimore did.
    — Baltimore Sun Staff, Baltimore Sun, 26 Nov. 2024
  • The barrage of body blows to the collective consciousness is exhausting.
    — Matthew Ismael Ruiz, Pitchfork, 26 June 2026
  • The Clippers took body blows from the Mavericks with Leonard, and fell into a series hole.
    — Law Murray, The Athletic, 28 Apr. 2024
  • Even putting aside a death toll on both sides that could dwarf the war in Ukraine, a war in Taiwan would be a body blow to the global economy.
    — Joshua Keating, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
  • This year, the snow crab harvest dropped nearly 90% in a body blow to the city’s budget and to its efforts to keep people from moving away.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 10 Apr. 2022
  • The near-total halt of air travel in the spring proved a body blow for Hertz, which had already been losing money even before the pandemic hit.
    — Chris Isidore, CNN, 2 Mar. 2021

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