How to Use pound of flesh in a Sentence

pound of flesh

noun phrase
  • That’s what a pound of flesh being taken feels like.
    — Beren Cross, New York Times, 6 Apr. 2026
  • All the other cord cutting exacts its pound of flesh!
    — Brett Owens, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2025
  • The Lightning wanted their pound of flesh from the Canadiens.
    — Pierre Lebrun, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2026
  • So your 20-pound watermelon with 14 pounds of flesh will yield 21 cups of fresh fruit.
    — Karla Walsh, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 May 2026
  • Having paid its pound of flesh in the form of Paul Mescal’s Supporting Actor snub, Hamnet now looks a lot less threatening.
    — Nate Jones, Vulture, 31 Jan. 2026
  • And later — when the brutality ever present in this sport of beauty extracted its pound of flesh from Glenn — she was equipped to deal with professional adversity.
    — Marcus Thompson Ii, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2026
  • While Kimmel never formally apologized and no pound of flesh was taken by the administration, the upshot was that Disney was believed to have acted a bit too hastily.
    — Dade Hayes, Deadline, 29 Apr. 2026
  • Defenceman Donovan Sebrango tried to get his pound of flesh at the expense of Canadiens forward Kirby Dach near the end of the game, but the war was already nearly won by Montreal.
    — Julian McKenzie, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Access To Capital Businesses also need capital, but securing financing through traditional channels often involves lengthy approval processes, high fees and multiple intermediaries—a pound of flesh, in other words.
    — Art Malkov, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
  • In response, governors of Democratic states have threatened to take their own pound of flesh, with California's Gavin Newsom, New York's Kathy Hochul, and Illinois' JB Pritzker all promising to redraw their own states' already-small Republican districts if Texas goes ahead.
    — Amanda Castro hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 Aug. 2025

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