How to Use co-opt in a Sentence

co-opt

verb
  • Those who spoke up in self-defense were either silenced or co-opted.
    — Deborah Bonello, Los Angeles Times, 14 Nov. 2023
  • His purpose has been co-opted by other, more bloodthirsty men.
    — Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 17 Sep. 2024
  • Party lines get twisted over the years, and messages and brands are co-opted by people.
    — Tommy Cummings, Dallas News, 3 Aug. 2023
  • At home, that means repressing minorities and co-opting the press.
    — Daniel Block, The Atlantic, 30 Nov. 2024
  • These people are co-opting a movement that was created by and for fat people.
    — Stephanie Yeboah, refinery29.com, 12 July 2024
  • The event was co-opted as a starring vehicle for the president with acolytes as co-stars.
    — Christine Ledbetter, Chicago Tribune, 4 Jan. 2026
  • Chumbawamba is no stranger to politicians co-opting its music.
    — Dhruv Tikekar, CNN, 4 Apr. 2024
  • Of late, the tourist haven has been co-opted as yet another place for New York fans to cheer.
    — ABC News, 13 June 2026
  • Luckily, the saga has also been co-opted for a bit of Christmas cheer.
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 12 Dec. 2025
  • So the method here is to co-opt the hysterical semiotics of alt-righters for sickle supremacy.
    — Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Every second counts for skimo racers, and a skimo pack lets us mortals co-opt some of that need for speed.
    — Anthony Walsh, Outside, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Their biggest concern was about having a hearing person sort of co-opt this and tell this (story).
    — Addie Morfoot, Variety, 16 May 2025
  • It's been co-opted from Black culture and turned into a stand-in for various slurs.
    — Fifth & Mission Podcast, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Mar. 2023
  • But their fury was too easily co-opted by the few who want to wantonly destroy and used the cover of protest to do so.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2025
  • But perhaps most concerning is how these pouches have co-opted the health halo once shrouding vapes.
    — Erica Sloan, SELF, 1 July 2025
  • But modern extremists have co-opted them to invoke a new war on Muslims.
    — Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 1 May 2025
  • Not to re-establish order over unruly creative children, but to co-opt their success.
    — Paul Fischer, HollywoodReporter, 13 Feb. 2026
  • Both then and now, Nashville’s Music Row tried to co-opt the folk-stomp movement to their own ends.
    — Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 24 Mar. 2025
  • But invariably, these calls are co-opted by conservatives to demonize those on the short end of the stick.
    — Literary Hub, 30 Mar. 2026
  • There are also some social movements that have been co-opted by allies who have steered the movement away from its original goals.
    — Preeti Vani, Fortune, 4 Apr. 2024
  • But that revolution was co-opted by a dictatorship, as well.
    — Literary Hub, 9 Oct. 2025
  • The same sort of efforts to co-opt far-right talking points have been happening across Europe, analysts said.
    — Loveday Morris, Washington Post, 25 Nov. 2023
  • There is also the history of Black culture and music being co-opted.
    — A.d. Carson, Scientific American, 4 Sep. 2024
  • Which is clearly a metaphor for some sort of childhood trauma the filmmaker’s processing which co-opted his parental bonds as a young child.
    — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025
  • Allow me to co-opt the lyrics of a viral TikTok song, because … what the Hellion?
    — Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 17 May 2025
  • Critics argue that far from protecting the dignity of the monarch, the law has been co-opted to silence all dissent.
    — Charlie Campbell, Time, 26 June 2025
  • Hot springs are usually free in both spirit and actual cost (unless the spring has been co-opted by a fancy resort).
    — Joe Jackson, Outside Online, 1 June 2018
  • Empowerment is not the right descriptor for these songs—co-opted as the word has been by girlbosses galore.
    — Laia Garcia-Furtado, Vogue, 19 Feb. 2024
  • In Eddington, Joe co-opts the righteous anger of BLM.
    — Robert Daniels, Time, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Both have complicated legacies and have at various times attempted to be co-opted by far-right groups.
    — Olivia Kemp, CNN Money, 29 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'co-opt.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: