How to Use laissez-faire in a Sentence

laissez-faire

noun
  • The Field Act was a striking new kind of law in a laissez-faire state.
    — Patt Morrisoncolumnist, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2023
  • Cowell new laissez-faire attitude has left him with few regrets.
    — Byryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 10 June 2024
  • Still, if there was a past laissez-faire attitude about Lemon, those days appear to be over.
    — Tatiana Siegel, Variety, 5 Apr. 2023
  • Michaels has changed his laissez-faire attitude toward substance abuse.
    — Susan Morrison, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2025
  • The company has built an empire on low fees and a laissez-faire, all-traders-welcome culture.
    — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 28 Mar. 2023
  • There’s a science to the seemingly laissez-faire act of sporting an oversize shirt.
    — Erika Veurink, Vogue, 31 Dec. 2023
  • Perhaps one of the best — and more laissez-faire — ways to enjoy the tournament is to buy a grounds pass and hop around from court to court.
    — Jesus Jiménez, New York Times, 28 Aug. 2023
  • Or are business leaders too laissez-faire about the new technology?
    — Byrachyl Jones, Fortune, 8 Nov. 2023
  • The apes’ close relatives, bonobos, however, were more laissez-faire and rarely stepped in.
    — Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 10 May 2026
  • Either restaurants have been cleaning up their acts or summer brings out the laissez-faire in inspectors.
    — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 26 June 2025
  • Prince Charming aims to overthrow Shrek as heir to the throne, which the laissez-faire ogre doesn’t even want in the first place.
    — Skyler Trepel September 1, EW.com, 1 Sep. 2025
  • Children are catered for in a laissez-faire way, with a playground and zip wire, tennis court floating on a lake and a beamed attic filled with games.
    — Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 Dec. 2025
  • The effect should be laissez-faire, easy-breezy—but getting to that look isn’t as simple as twirling some fabric around your neck and heading out the door.
    — Erika Veurink, Vogue, 30 Nov. 2024
  • But the singer herself adopted a laissez-faire attitude toward the milestone.
    — Clare Mulroy, USA Today, 15 Mar. 2026
  • Spicoli remains as laissez-faire as ever, cool, care-free and unbothered by the teacher who presses him.
    — Paul Fitzgerald, Rolling Stone, 8 Sep. 2025
  • And yet, Simmons could showcase a laissez-faire attitude on defense.
    — Sam Vecenie, New York Times, 19 June 2025
  • And yet, Simmons could showcase a laissez-faire attitude on defense.
    — Sam Vecenie, New York Times, 12 June 2026
  • Lest anyone feared a laissez-faire approach, Hamp quickly proved otherwise.
    — Matthew Scogin, Forbes, 11 Jan. 2025
  • Leadership styles can vary, from autocratic to laissez-faire, and each type sets a specific tone in the workplace.
    — Kate Wieczorek, Forbes, 28 Oct. 2024
  • Fortunately, for those in the United Kingdom, things are far more laissez-faire.
    — Fiona McCarthy, Air Mail, 3 May 2025
  • But Trump has gone from being somewhat laissez-faire about data in his first term to being obsessed with data in his second term.
    — Fergus McIntosh, New Yorker, 6 Aug. 2025
  • The former is regulation-forward; the latter is laissez-faire.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 14 June 2023
  • The former group relishes the research; the latter loves the serendipity of a laissez-faire approach.
    — Emilia Petrarca and Margot Dougherty, WSJ, 22 Mar. 2023
  • But those with coily hair can also snip a few singular curls and separate them with their fingers to get the same laissez-faire, unbothered look.
    — Loren Savini, Allure, 10 Jan. 2026
  • Duff said policymakers cannot afford to take the same laissez-faire approach with AI.
    — Alison Cross, Hartford Courant, 23 Apr. 2024
  • LeBron has taken more of a laissez-faire approach to media this season, likely due to everything with his son.
    — William Lambers, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
  • Ahead of the film’s release, Benton told The Times about his more laissez-faire approach to filmmaking.
    — Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2025
  • The irony with this laissez-faire attitude is that the talent who might help elevate these stories are no longer interested in being a part of them.
    — Harrison Richlin, IndieWire, 1 Mar. 2025
  • Vance is a laissez-faire evangelist for American tech dominance.
    — Marc Caputo, Axios, 28 Feb. 2025
  • That might be because of its laissez-faire approach to moderation; hate speech wasn’t banned from the site until 2020.
    — Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge, 24 Feb. 2024

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