How to Use opening gambit in a Sentence

opening gambit

noun
  • Bores regards it as at least a good opening gambit.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 7 May 2026
  • But solar is just the opening gambit.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 1 Nov. 2023
  • Trump’s social media post may have been just an opening gambit.
    — Brian Stelter, CNN Money, 5 May 2025
  • As an opening gambit for such an endeavor, Njinga’s tale is hard to beat.
    — Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Feb. 2023
  • That wasn’t the strong opening gambit that New England needed to start the second half.
    — Christopher Price, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Dec. 2022
  • Meeting the client’s immediate needs is just the opening gambit.
    — Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 11 Aug. 2025
  • The Limit, Save, Grow Act is an opening gambit, not part of the endgame.
    — Matthew Continetti, National Review, 29 Apr. 2023
  • That question, the film’s opening gambit, is a shrewd piece of propagandizing.
    — Armond White, National Review, 29 Mar. 2023
  • Shannon’s opening gambit about what’s bothering her is confusing.
    — Peter Larsen, Orange County Register, 12 July 2024
  • The battle happening right now is the opening gambit in the war over America’s clean energy future.
    — Matthew Miles Goodrich, The New Republic, 6 Mar. 2023
  • Diddy attorney Alexandra Shapiro’s opening gambit invoked lofty ideals about justice.
    — Victoria Bekiempis, Vulture, 9 Apr. 2026
  • The anxiety for Judd comes about in a somewhat symbolic way, at first, starting with the very practical matter of the artist having difficulty with the opening gambit of the tour.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 29 Apr. 2023
  • The variance with accustomed Goodspeed values is apparent from the very first moments, though the opening gambit fails due to an appalling lack of attentiveness from the audience.
    — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 3 May 2026
  • Because Edelman’s opening gambit reveals itself to be cannily constructed.
    — Vulture, 27 June 2023
  • Propst had everyone fooled for his first game in his home state since resigning from Hoover in 2007, and his opening gambit was almost enough against one of the state’s most talented up-and-coming coaches.
    — Joseph Goodman | [email protected], al, 26 Aug. 2023
  • The young man is Meursault (Benjamin Voisin), and, in flashback, the film then reveals the chain of circumstance that has led him there, starting with the death of his mother, which was Camus’ original opening gambit.
    — Damon Wise, Deadline, 2 Sep. 2025

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