How to Use gut check in a Sentence

gut check

noun
  • Elorza doesn’t need to gut check these things with unions or through polling.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 13 July 2021
  • The conference was meant to be a kind of gut check.
    — Literary Hub, 28 Oct. 2025
  • That gut check works for most decisions.
    — Vinay Kuruvila, Forbes.com, 25 June 2026
  • Every user should be able to have that gut check—not just those who pay for it.
    — Scott Nover, Quartz, 12 Nov. 2021
  • Tuesday doesn’t end this season, but this is not the time of year for gut checks.
    — Zach Osterman, The Indianapolis Star, 1 Mar. 2023
  • Sharon was, to so many, a mentor, a friend, our steady guide, our constant gut check.
    — Helen Branswell, STAT, 17 Jan. 2021
  • In the absence of data, the gut check sometimes still wins.
    — Rolling Stone Culture Council, Rolling Stone, 23 Feb. 2026
  • All of this amounted to quite the gut check to test the Saints’ resilience.
    — Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY, 15 Sep. 2019
  • Rather, Trump thinks of Bannon as his gut check, in the words of one top aide.
    — Philip Rucker, Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2017
  • The coming days will bring one more gut check for an electorate largely locked in and ready to vote.
    — Dan Balz, Anchorage Daily News, 4 Oct. 2020
  • In fact, the index briefly even cracked its low from the entire fourth quarter, a rare gut check.
    — Michael Santoli, CNBC, 8 Mar. 2025
  • This was a gut check and character game to build on moving forward.
    — Adam Lichtenstein, sun-sentinel.com, 24 Aug. 2019
  • The dynamism of air combat, where split-second gut checks translate to kill or be killed.
    — Colin Demarest, Axios, 2 Apr. 2025
  • But a week full of gut checks resulted in the biggest win in club history thus far.
    — Idaho Statesman, 21 June 2026
  • Instead, two guys made gut check guesses about what could be got through Congress, and that was that.
    — Ryan Cooper, TheWeek, 24 Nov. 2020
  • It was supposed to be the ultimate gut check for a team that has had plenty of them this season.
    — Rod Walker, NOLA.com, 3 Jan. 2021
  • Find a side door if that front door isn’t available…Do an internal gut check, and then go for it.
    — Halley Bondy, NBC News, 16 Nov. 2019
  • Kentucky coach John Calipari was glad that his team answered a gut check.
    — Gary B. Graves, Houston Chronicle, 9 Jan. 2018
  • Start tracking your expenses and do a gut check to see what spending can be cut to help beef up your savings.
    — Kathryn Vasel, CNN, 9 June 2020
  • For Arvidsson, the wild finish wasn’t a collapse but a gut check for the Kings.
    — Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2024
  • This is a gut check spot, and the Chiefs are the AFC's best for a reason.
    — Jeremy Cluff, The Arizona Republic, 25 Oct. 2021
  • Tuesday was a historic night for America and a gut check for the nation.
    — Stephen A. Crockett Jr., The Root, 13 Dec. 2017
  • Cook’s half-court heave at the buzzer sailed high off the backboard, and Auburn survived another gut check on the road.
    — Tom Green | [email protected], al, 5 Feb. 2022
  • The beginning of a new administration is the perfect time to do this gut check.
    — Kevin Xu, Forbes, 1 June 2021
  • Music that questions your psyche and health, worries for your ecosystem, gut checks your self-worth and pride, and keeps you lifted.
    — Ian Brennan, NPR, 15 Apr. 2026
  • If the response still doesn’t sound right, get in touch with a wildlife-conservation organization for a gut check.
    — Stephanie Vermillion, Outside Online, 3 May 2022
  • Historically, a gut check of a housing bubble is the home-price-to-income ratio.
    — Ali Wolf, Fortune, 9 Sep. 2021
  • Have fun out there, but do a little research to gut check your potential TikTok purchase.
    — Shira Ovide, Washington Post, 18 Aug. 2023
  • This empathetic impulse was the result of years of hard work to step outside himself, to gut check and soul search and learn from past mistakes.
    — Kerry Kennedy, CNN, 5 June 2021
  • But the whole thing is a serious gut check about our readiness as a country for the worsening weather extremes being wrought by climate change.
    — Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar. 2021

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