How to Use motley in a Sentence

motley

adjective
  • The riverbed sinks and turns to stone, and a motley beard of roots shrouds the banks.
    — Carson Vaughan, Outside Online, 27 Jan. 2020
  • The motley crew of cars lined up at the icy starting line, engines revving.
    — Katie Galioto, Star Tribune, 27 Feb. 2021
  • At the rear of those thin-skinned skyscrapers comes a pack of motley buildings.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 30 Sep. 2021
  • Starches — legumes, tubers, grains, to name a few — are a motley bunch.
    — New York Times, 6 Aug. 2021
  • By the end, a motley band of warriors has been assembled to fight evil.
    — New York Times, 14 May 2018
  • The current membership of the board is a motley mix.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2026
  • So that’s exciting to know about this group, this random, motley crew.
    — Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 June 2017
  • Everyone in the audience sees their own cats in the motley crew on-stage.
    — Dan Nosowitz, Cosmopolitan, 12 Sep. 2017
  • Calderoni goes back to her apartment and opens her windows, eyeing a motley crew of neighbors.
    — Barry Samaha, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 Nov. 2020
  • His kidnappers were a motley crew with varying levels of piety.
    — Christina Anderson, New York Times, 24 Sep. 2017
  • The rest of the motley cast hardly inspires trust or confidence.
    — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 24 Oct. 2019
  • Here is the motley collection of folks who are invested in making these clothes.
    — Robin Givhan, Washington Post, 9 Sep. 2019
  • Think of Shaun of the Dead’s motley crew holed up in the Winchester pub.
    — Josh Wilbur, Wired, 29 Mar. 2020
  • But this motley breed, borrowing the tools of each trade, is pulling craft culture together.
    — Keith Flanagan, USA TODAY, 12 June 2018
  • Among her own classmates at hafiz school, Çimen recalls an equally motley cast.
    — Eren Orbey, The New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2023
  • Their motley group of wide receivers combined for two catches on five targets for 18 yards.
    — Jonas Shaffer, Baltimore Sun, 1 Jan. 2023
  • This is a motley list of parents, some of which are mutually exclusive or at least very hard to square.
    — Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 7 May 2018
  • The futuristic building was out of place in the motley district.
    — Jon Talton, The Seattle Times, 19 Aug. 2017
  • The guests, dressed in motley, were talking loud nonsense and visibly insane.
    — Nell Zink, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019
  • On the right, the mushroom cloud of a bomb looms over swirls of factory smoke, the scene a motley milieu of muddied grays and browns.
    — Angelica Aboulhosn, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Nov. 2023
  • With this motley assortment of flawed teams, there’s still a chance the Brewers could sneak into the wild-card game.
    — Jon Tayler, SI.com, 10 Sep. 2019
  • Of course there are serious problems — but don’t count on this motley crew to speak about them seriously.
    — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 20 Feb. 2020
  • The walls were adorned with a motley assortment of cowboy kitsch and sketches of John Wayne.
    — oregonlive, 13 Nov. 2019
  • But a motley though potent array of industry groups has aligned against the package (see the bill text here), and its ranks could swell in the days ahead.
    — Tory Newmyer, Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2017
  • In 1967, a motley crew of dudes set off down the peninsula in search of glory and bragging rights.
    — Davey G. Johnson, Car and Driver, 9 Oct. 2017
  • The motley looking crew, hair matted on some from camping nearby the night before, readied for the first capture.
    — Alex Devoid, azcentral, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Having worked solo for so long, Boba now has a motley crew of his own to guard Mos Espa.
    — Lauren Morgan, EW.com, 9 Feb. 2022
  • From there, the list is a motley hodgepodge of Netflix originals and third-party titles.
    — Andy Meek, BGR, 1 June 2022
  • The subject matter is grim, but the tone is motley and irreverent, veering from maudlin realism to campy notes on the camps.
    — The New Yorker, 29 Nov. 2022
  • Tune in to find out what various kerfuffles the quirky former hostage and her New York motley crew are causing this year.
    — Noor Brara, Vogue, 21 May 2018

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