How to Use militarize in a Sentence

militarize

verb
  • China has been militarizing the islands in the area to support its claims.
    — Regine Cabato, Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2023
  • China has pushed out and militarized a lot of the islands and islets in this region over the last 10 years or so.
    — Joshua Keating, Vox, 26 Apr. 2024
  • Some were processed through the very bases now being militarized for detention.
    — Chris Purdy, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Aug. 2025
  • The move is just the latest in a series of attempts to militarize Russia's youth.
    — Fox News, 24 May 2020
  • The Guardian reports that Uber sponsors a trade show that aims to militarize the police.
    — Danielle Tcholakian, Longreads, 10 Feb. 2016
  • Iran’s government, now more hard-line and militarized than ever, will remain in power.
    — Sudarsan Raghavan, New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2026
  • For all his martial rhetoric, Kennedy was no more willing to militarize space than Eisenhower had been.
    — Jeff Shesol, WSJ, 29 May 2021
  • Outsource, militarize right across the board, so that a neoliberal is somebody who is obsessed with markets.
    — Michael Harriot, The Root, 19 Dec. 2017
  • It was declared a disaster zone and militarized on Thursday.
    — Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald, 27 June 2026
  • Middle-aged men with dad bods have joined home defense units, patrolling in golf carts, militarizing what were once suburban neighborhoods.
    — William Booth, Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2024
  • To counter that dissent, the Kremlin has worked to militarize education.
    — Natalia Abbakumova, Washington Post, 1 Sep. 2023
  • And it would be based on the demilitarization of Gaza and the guarantee that it could never again be militarized.
    — David Makovsky, Washington Post, 19 June 2024
  • Giammattei has sought to win over urban voters with a pledge to militarize public security to reduce crime.
    — Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 9 Aug. 2019
  • The region is one of the most heavily militarized in the world, patrolled by soldiers and paramilitary police.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Sep. 2019
  • New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson said the one-mile radius will not be militarized or have checkpoints.
    — Ben Guarino, Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2020
  • But their inclusion only further militarizes the state and heightens the risk of new conflicts as war and coercion become societal norms.
    — Andrei Yakovlev, Foreign Affairs, 16 May 2025
  • The project was met by widespread criticism from those that believe the facility will militarize the police and threaten marginalized people.
    — Irene Wright, USA Today, 3 Feb. 2026
  • In recent years, China has built and militarized manmade islands in the South China Sea.
    — Jeanette Steele, sandiegouniontribune.com, 30 May 2017
  • Trump’s strategy risks militarizing problems that are not military in nature.
    — Michael Kimmage, Foreign Affairs, 8 Dec. 2025
  • All while militarizing the countries around Iran, Russia, and China in a vain attempt to get those governments to calm down.
    — Connor Okeeffe, Orange County Register, 17 Oct. 2024
  • But militarizing nations abroad has a long history of doing precisely the opposite.
    — Abigail R. Hall, Oc Register, 28 Feb. 2026
  • Since then, Russia has militarized its economy, prepared for a long war, managed to recruit hordes of soldiers, and produced large stockpiles of equipment.
    — Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Foreign Affairs, 21 May 2024
  • If militarizing our law enforcement to combat crime sounds dystopian and terrible, what will Dems do to keep violent criminals off the streets?
    — S.e. Cupp, New York Daily News, 30 Apr. 2025
  • China claims almost the entire sea as its sovereign territory, and has spent recent years militarizing and building up sandbars and islets across the region.
    — James Griffiths, CNN, 25 Nov. 2019
  • Thousands remain missing and anger grows over a government response many see as slow and militarized, forcing civilians and foreign teams to lead chaotic search-and-rescue efforts.
    — Regina Garcia Cano, Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2026
  • Because Iraq’s al-Sistani would not militarize his followers, Iran went mullah shopping and found another more inclined to do so.
    — Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 2 Sep. 2025
  • This transit is about romanticizing your wellness rituals, not militarizing them.
    — Dossé-Via Trenou, Refinery29, 3 Aug. 2025
  • Experts warn that militarizing the anti-cartel fight risks undermining rule of law in regions where civilian institutions are weak and corruption is endemic.
    — Joshua Goodman, Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2026
  • Wilson, along with more than a dozen other Oregon mayors, signed a joint letter that was released on Monday, rejecting any efforts to federally militarize the area.
    — Chantelle Lee, Time, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Iran had also not yet indicated any plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global energy trade that has been militarized by Iran since the start of the war.
    — Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 10 Apr. 2026

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