How to Use petard in a Sentence

petard

noun
  • Of course, my own son’s hair has hoisted me on my own petard.
    — Lizzie Skurnick, New York Times, 16 Apr. 2020
  • One acts as a petard, blasting through a wall to grant access to the others.
    — The Economist, 14 Dec. 2017
  • My biggest worry is that I will be hoisted on my own self-righteous petard.
    — Lisa Miller, Daily Intelligencer, 29 Oct. 2017
  • The pro-Brexit tabloids had special fun hoisting Maugham on his own bat/petard.
    — Washington Post, 30 Dec. 2019
  • Despite that controversy, the FTC’s choice to hoist Facebook by its own petard makes sense.
    — Rebecca Haw Allensworth, Quartz, 23 Dec. 2020
  • Charlotte winds up hoisted by her own petard when her investigation into her former friend results in havoc rather than healing.
    — Courtney Howard, Variety, 16 Nov. 2023
  • Getting your petard gored on the emitting of offensive AI language is a now enduring mistake.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 5 Feb. 2023
  • What better fate than to see the professional bloviator and conspiracy theorist have his own words used against him, hoisted on his self-incriminating petard?
    — Wired, 5 Aug. 2022
  • In the real world, someone like Eileen — who’s hoisted herself on her own petard — would more likely leave her old job in a huff and start up a newsletter and write disingenuously about her nonexistent cancellation.
    — Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 6 Oct. 2022
  • After five years of continuous resident complaints, some AEC members enjoyed the opportunity to hoist locals by their own petard.
    — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Nov. 2020
  • Still, Montoya has sometimes been hoisted with his own petard, as his club has allowed late-game goals in each of its last three games, two of them losses, largely because Bay FC doesn’t want to stop looking for goals.
    — Jason Mastrodonato, The Mercury News, 15 Apr. 2024
  • Foremost among the opera’s ironies is Agrippina herself (Joyce DiDonato), domineering and conniving throughout the span of this opera, but in real life destined, in the years that would follow, to be hoist by her own petard.
    — James Romm, The New York Review of Books, 1 Mar. 2020

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