How to Use fief in a Sentence

fief

noun
  • Shōgun is all about what transcends culture and what stays firmly in its own fief.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2024
  • Those promises mean little if the funds are run like personal fiefs.
    — The Economist, 14 June 2019
  • Perhaps renting is a prudent approach if the city must have five pension fiefs.
    — New York Times, 6 June 2018
  • Labour, which used to regard Scotland as a fief, looks like being left with a single seat.
    — The Economist, 13 Dec. 2019
  • The Houthis, who control the north, claim the situation is far better in their fief.
    — The Economist, 4 June 2020
  • Since then Hamas has run the coastal strip as a separate fief, with its own civil servants and police.
    — The Economist, 5 Oct. 2017
  • Kadyrov, who rules Chechnya as a fief, would be unacceptable to the elite.
    — Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2022
  • Unlike some other cities going to the polls, Birmingham is not a Labour fief.
    — The Economist, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Under feudalism, a landowner would grant fiefs to vassals, who would farm the land and give a portion of the yield to the landowner.
    — Sheelah Kolhatkar, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
  • Two years later Portugal acquired Dadra, which became a kind of fief.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Apr. 2026
  • In his own fief, the executive had become accustomed to torrid growth.
    — Dana Mattioli, WSJ, 16 June 2022
  • Their claim is based on possession of a fief—a right granted by a feudal overlord in exchange for allegiance or services.
    — The Economist, 27 Mar. 2021
  • The uprising shattered Libya into a collection of fiefs ruled by militias.
    — The Economist, 5 Apr. 2018
  • Little wonder, then, that Facebook is bringing a dating service to the richest denizens of its internet fief.
    — The Economist, 12 Sep. 2019
  • Opération des forces de l’ordre à Bas-Delmas, fief du chef de gang Babekyou, avec utilisation de drones kamikazes.
    — Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 16 Jan. 2026
  • Ms Goldberg may have come to feel that the position carried too much of a managerial burden, but too little power to rule her fief.
    — The Economist, 13 Feb. 2020
  • And feudalism discouraged trade; a feudal estate, or fief, was often a closed community that aimed to be self-sufficient.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 30 May 2012
  • What emerged was a picture of a nightmarish constellation of dungeonlike prisons, each its own fief yet also part of a greater coordinated whole.
    — New York Times, 25 Jan. 2022
  • One episode introduces Kirkwood Chocolate, the Tyler Perry-like overlord of an inescapable fief of schlock.
    — James Poniewozik, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2022
  • For years, Mamic ran the country’s soccer program as his own personal fief; in June, he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for embezzlement and tax fraud.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 10 July 2018
  • Paul is the heir to House Atreides, whose fief is the oceanic planet of Caladan, a stony, rainy, tumultuous world, limited in its purview and power.
    — K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 2021
  • Hundreds of adoring supporters turned out for a signing in the Sixteenth Arrondissement, Sarkozy’s Paris fief.
    — Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 13 Dec. 2025
  • Or, more properly, what passed for the central management of the city’s pension funds, the Bureau of Asset Management. In reality, the pensions are five fiefs, run by union officials and city representatives.
    — New York Times, 17 May 2018
  • In corralling rival agencies into one holding company, WPP has allowed the agencies to operate as fiefs for years.
    — Nick Kostov, WSJ, 13 June 2018
  • On a practical level, the Border Patrol’s hubs along the Mexican border, known as sectors, operate in some ways as fiefs.
    — New York Times, 15 Sep. 2019
  • To appease tensions, John surrendered England to the pope in 1213, turning the kingdom into a papal fief.
    — Joëlle Rollo-Koster, Fortune, 15 Apr. 2026
  • All that time, Putin allowed the feud between the two fiefs to fester without much intervention, something analysts correctly predicted to be a ticking bomb.
    — Mary Ilyushina, Anchorage Daily News, 26 June 2023
  • For seven centuries its Kurds had their own more or less independent fief, known as Ardalan, nestling in the mountains between the Ottoman and Persian empires.
    — The Economist, 30 Sep. 2017
  • Essentially, Kennedy is a necklace of terminals, each one its own fief that handles major elements of air travel independently of the others.
    — Michael Wilson and Patrick McGeehan, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2018
  • Mawlawi Ansari, 36, a burly, bearded cleric, has carved out his own fief in a conservative district of Herat, a western Afghanistan city renowned for art and culture.
    — David Zucchino, New York Times, 22 Oct. 2020

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