How to Use buttress in a Sentence

buttress

1 of 2 noun
  • The buttresses stay small, but the rest of the root system sprawls out near the surface.
    — Kenneth Setzer, miamiherald, 20 July 2017
  • The buttresses are one of many design details that turned out to be good for both the race and road car.
    — Dan Neil, WSJ, 6 July 2017
  • The whole point was to build an imperfect buttress for my own discomfort.
    — Daisy Alioto, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020
  • Smaller slides offer more options, such as walls, buttresses and drainage.
    — Lisa M. Krieger, The Mercury News, 3 June 2017
  • At their base are permanent floating ice shelves that act as a buttress to the fast-flowing ice behind it.
    — Helen Regan, CNN, 15 Sep. 2020
  • There are sturdy buttress roots below and pen-thin palms towering above the forest canopy.
    — Mark Johanson, chicagotribune.com, 23 Mar. 2018
  • Cherven’s medieval town—perched on a buttress of rock high above the river and the modern village.
    — Henry Wismayer, WSJ, 23 May 2018
  • During the day, the mounds' outer buttresses heat up faster than their central chimneys.
    — National Geographic, 7 May 2018
  • The combination of low debt and sufficient cash can act as a buttress against a downturn.
    — Paul Malloy, Fortune, 12 Oct. 2022
  • When the roof is lowered, some riders can notice a bit of wind buffeting from the buttresses area.
    — Ann M. Job, The Seattle Times, 27 Apr. 2017
  • Researchers have been concerned that without their icy buttresses, these walls could collapse.
    — Megan I. Gannon, Scientific American, 6 May 2026
  • Their trunks, ten to fifteen feet in diameter, were braced with massive buttresses and knees.
    — Douglas Preston, The New Yorker, 1 Jan. 2017
  • Losing that buttress can be almost as important as losing a paycheck.
    — Jane M. Von Bergen, Philly.com, 15 Dec. 2017
  • Learning how other people live is not just travel’s chief pleasure but a sure buttress against age narrowing our minds.
    — Jane Harrigan, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Jan. 2023
  • He was attracted to the backyard view of the buttress, which looks more like a lush hillside than a strategy to keep landslides at bay.
    — Hannah Frystaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2022
  • Instead of sheet metal and glass, two buttresses protect occupants from behind.
    — Robert Ross, Robb Report, 24 Apr. 2023
  • The original buttresses were deemed at some point not strong enough and were replaced by larger ones in the 14th century.
    — Klara Glowczewska, Town & Country, 19 Apr. 2019
  • Luckily, Camelot has the Gothic flying buttresses of its songs to keep its structure sound.
    — Vulture, 13 Apr. 2023
  • George’s arrival should provide a constant buttress—as will smaller, more mobile lineups in general.
    — Rob Mahoney, SI.com, 26 Sep. 2017
  • Johnny’s backstory is a buttress for the show’s conservatism, which is shocking, even for mainstream culture.
    — Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2022
  • Through the centuries, the cathedral's windows were widened and the flying buttresses reconstructed.
    — Rick Noack, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Mar. 2023
  • Through the centuries, the cathedral’s windows were widened and the flying buttresses reconstructed.
    — Rick Noack, Washington Post, 18 Mar. 2023
  • The castlelike exterior boasted a large corner buttress and chimney as well as a curvilinear parapet wall.
    — Paula Allen, ExpressNews.com, 10 Aug. 2019
  • The tools can help stop crime and terror attacks but can also become an undemocratic buttress of political power.
    — Adam Satariano, New York Times, 30 Mar. 2023
  • At each corner of the mausoleum is a three-quarter column, also covered in the basket-weave pattern and slightly tilted inward to act as a buttress.
    — Judith H. Dobrzynski, WSJ, 4 May 2018
  • Not since the medieval masons tried to render God in buttresses and vaults had so much stone been devoted to the assertion of permanence.
    — Edward Carr, 1843, 29 Aug. 2019
  • Here and there, Moorish spires and flying buttresses visible from the narrow streets invariably lead you to the centuries-old churches and palaces.
    — Monica Mendal, Vogue, 7 Mar. 2023
  • One buttress of civilian control is the public’s commitment to the constitutional order.
    — German Feierherd, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2018
  • Arches and natural bridges sweep like buttresses from jumbles of rock, giving this landscape a mystical, cathedral-like quality.
    — Madison Chapman, Outside, 25 Mar. 2026
  • The ride will, for the first time, offer glimpses of the intricate steel framing that supports the mast, the backside of the aluminum buttresses and translucent panels that transmit the mast’s nighttime glow.
    — James S. Russell, New York Times, 17 Sep. 2019

buttress

2 of 2 verb
  • The treaty will buttress the cause of peace.
  • The theory has been buttressed by the results of the experiment.
  • So that needs to be buttressed.
    — Sarah Fortinsky, The Hill, 24 Aug. 2025
  • Only the walls remain, buttressed with beams.
    — Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 20 June 2026
  • The facade, three walls buttressed by supports, is all that remains.
    — Giacomo Bologna, Baltimore Sun, 9 May 2023
  • Without thick sheets of ice to buttress it, the rock face becomes destabilized.
    — Ella Nilsen, CNN Money, 22 Oct. 2025
  • And for his part, Gertler brought in foreign investors to buttress Congo’s cash flow.
    — Nicolas Niarchos, Vanity Fair, 20 Feb. 2026
  • The upstream glaciers, now without their buttressing support, flow faster toward the sea.
    — Evan Howell, Quanta Magazine, 20 Oct. 2025
  • That very insight further buttresses the need for a grand strategy.
    — James B. Steinberg, Foreign Affairs, 9 June 2020
  • Her left leg — mangled in the airstrike that killed her brother, sister and mother — was held in a cast buttressed by metal joints and rods.
    — Marc Smith, NBC News, 26 Jan. 2024
  • Plus, the most compelling arguments for his campaign don’t come from bending over backward to buttress his case.
    — Christopher L. Gasper, BostonGlobe.com, 28 Dec. 2022
  • There are also a few cases where the power of the brand is buttressed by the idea that some shows are better off without their stars doing press.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 29 Aug. 2023
  • In addition, taking stock of your strengths will buttress the negative emotions that may arise in times of crisis.
    — John Baldoni, Forbes, 15 Oct. 2021
  • Concrete has been buttressed to prevent it from collapsing and crushing workers.
    — Jonathan Edwards, Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Saleh set himself up as a dictator, relying on militants to buttress his rule.
    — Samanth Subramanian, The New York Review of Books, 30 Nov. 2023
  • Howard said that since the fraud allegations surfaced in the fall, many victims have been pressed by the county’s lawyers to buttress their claims of abuse.
    — Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2026
  • All of these verses have been lifted out of context and repurposed to buttress the anti-vaccine movement.
    — John Fea, The Conversation, 4 Oct. 2021
  • Hundreds of rivers snake across the country, the eighth-most populous in the world, buttressed in the south by the planet’s largest mangrove forest.
    — Denise Chow, NBC News, 7 May 2023
  • The Times published a portion of the papers, but only as excerpts to buttress its reporting.
    — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 29 Oct. 2021
  • Harper buttressed these technical arguments with moral ones.
    — James Somers, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Country star Maren Morris -- or any singer looking for a solid, ominous groove to buttress their next tell-off -- should scoop it up.
    — Anthony Cougar Miccio, Billboard, 28 Oct. 2021
  • To buttress their case, prosecutors put Brieanna Eberly on the stand.
    — Paul Larosa, CBS News, 3 May 2026
  • That warmer water melts ice from below, thinning floating shelves and weakening their ability to buttress the glaciers behind them.
    — Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 4 Mar. 2026
  • For decades, Springsteen had kept his tickets at bargain rates, buttressing his reputation as a man of the people.
    — Ben Sisario, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The letter lays out evidence, culled from public meetings and public statements, to buttress the claim that the law was violated.
    — Mary Jo Pitzl, The Arizona Republic, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Sadly, the local news ecosystem around the country is collapsing faster than efforts to buttress it can be undertaken.
    — Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, 15 Feb. 2023
  • Too weak to resist Echard’s weathering, the works’ protective textile must be buttressed, even if only by common kitchen foil.
    — Theo Belci, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
  • Protecting adults during low-oxygen episodes may help buttress the long-term health of the population, according to a recent study.
    — Julia Rosen, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Mar. 2022
  • The survey prompted the emergency closure of the bridge to cars and trucks until early March while work commenced to buttress the roadway.
    — Mark Dee, Idaho Statesman, 19 Dec. 2025
  • For parents who can afford to do so, earmarking that money for college could be a good start to help buttress their savings for higher education.
    — Judith Ward, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2021

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