How to Use brandish in a Sentence

brandish

verb
  • She brandished a stick at the dog.
  • I could see that he was brandishing a knife.
  • No weapons were brandished and no one was injured, deputies said.
    — Madeline Mitchell, Cincinnati.com, 27 Feb. 2020
  • Pretti did not brandish his gun.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 31 Jan. 2026
  • Fingers are brandished; glutes are flexed.
    — Damian Garde, STAT, 5 Feb. 2026
  • One of the motorists brandished a weapon and gunshots were fired.
    — Lillian Metzmeier, Louisville Courier Journal, 18 Sep. 2025
  • The gunman brandished the weapon, shot the victim and fled on foot.
    — Tony Briscoe, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2023
  • Police said one in the group also brandished a firearm.
    — Darrell Smith, Sacbee.com, 7 Nov. 2025
  • The student didn't brandish the weapon or take it out of his pocket where it was found.
    — Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, 3 Dec. 2021
  • That officer then pulled the man from the car, at which point the man brandished a knife.
    — Topher Sanders, ProPublica, 30 June 2026
  • They could be seen brandishing signs in support of workers and unions.
    — Callum Sutherland, Time, 1 Sep. 2025
  • Morant, apparently at a night club, brandished what looked like a gun in the video.
    — oregonlive, 4 Mar. 2023
  • That's when police say the man brandished the knife and charged at the officers.
    — Christa Swanson, CBS News, 28 Mar. 2026
  • Dowdle hasn’t brandished the chip on his shoulder much publicly this year.
    — Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 9 Oct. 2025
  • The troops climbed a rope ladder to a door in the hull and jumped through, brandishing rifles.
    — Bart Jansen, USA Today, 23 Apr. 2026
  • The dozen-odd agents brandished their pistols and credentials.
    — Elliot Ackerman, WIRED, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Police said one of the males in the fight brandished a handgun and fired gunshots at others.
    — Rosalio Ahumada, Sacbee.com, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Lopez is the one who brandished a hatchet or axe and hit the victim, according to court records.
    — Connor Van Ligten, azcentral, 29 Apr. 2020
  • Legally carrying a firearm is not the same as brandishing a firearm.
    — Irene Wright, USA Today, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Still, to this day, people come up to me brandishing letters that my mother once wrote to them.
    — Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 7 Oct. 2025
  • In other words, the Kremlin leader got to brandish his nukes.
    — Nathan Hodge, CNN, 19 Feb. 2022
  • Bovino did not specify whether a weapon was brandished at the time that his agents say their lives were in danger.
    — Kyla Guilfoil, NBC news, 24 Jan. 2026
  • Nor were the tools ever displayed, much less brandished, as the tabloids suggested.
    — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2026
  • And the referee, who gets it together in time to brandish a yellow card.
    — Nick Miller, New York Times, 17 June 2026
  • Pretti had a holstered firearm but had a legal permit to do so and did not appear to brandish it at agents.
    — Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 26 Jan. 2026
  • The footage shows the officer pulling on the door handle on the driver’s side and then brandishing a gun.
    — Rayna Reid Rayford, Essence, 12 Apr. 2024
  • Netanyahu has been brandishing Amalek in the wake of the Hamas attack.
    — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2023
  • Many of the activists wore yellow and brandished signs in the movement's signature hue.
    — Janine Henni, Peoplemag, 25 Sep. 2023
  • On the cave’s craggy wall, six tiny hunters confront a large buffalo, brandishing ropes or spears.
    — Kate Wong, Scientific American, 12 Dec. 2019
  • Others have hit the streets, selling flowers and brandishing squeegees to wash car windows.
    — Miriam Jordan, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2024

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