How to Use sadistic in a Sentence

sadistic

adjective
  • White has dreamed up some very strange and sadistic drills.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 19 Sep. 2025
  • And there was a sadistic streak to the attacks.
    — Rob Picheta, CNN Money, 28 May 2026
  • Not only that, but this man was the most sadistic.
    — Zach Dennis, Charlotte Observer, 9 Sep. 2025
  • The point of it for him is the sadistic boot-on-face-forever.
    — WIRED, 24 Sep. 2021
  • But having two kids fight with each other to try to save their own lives, that’s sadistic.
    — Stephanie Nolasco, FOXNews.com, 17 Aug. 2025
  • Is there a sadistic impulse in playing with the viewer that way?
    — Adam Nayman, The New Yorker, 28 Aug. 2022
  • The sadistic Fiend will loom in the shadows and beckon all who pass to let him in.
    — Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 29 July 2025
  • But this version, more sadistic than the last, still didn't satisfy.
    — ArsTechnica, 14 June 2025
  • Fred was known to have sadistic tendencies and wooed a teenage Rose to join him on his killing sprees.
    — Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 14 May 2025
  • Every other tale can be sadistic or not, and in a more Jungian way.
    — Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 12 Dec. 2025
  • That is sadistic behaviour, a way for a person who feels small to taste a little power.
    — Hazlitt, 1 Feb. 2023
  • What a nasty, sadistic, evil regime, the Saudi government is.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 20 Oct. 2022
  • The most sadistic of his colleagues formed a group, known as the Goon Squad, which beat inmates.
    — James Verini, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Without the sadistic games going on, the show lacks momentum.
    — Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 26 Dec. 2024
  • Records from phone accounts also tied him to sadistic calls made to the families of victims.
    — Christine Pelisek, Peoplemag, 6 June 2024
  • The text treats it as a matter of course, despite the fact that death by drowning in one’s own tears is uniquely sadistic.
    — Longreads, 27 Mar. 2020
  • What’s the effect of her cutting Cathy’s sadistic brother?
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 11 Feb. 2026
  • The sadistic Lang, however, basks in such evil and partakes of it a little, too.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 2 May 2025
  • The four friends have never been in more danger because Mauer is brilliant and sadistic.
    — Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 7 Sep. 2025
  • To quash the ever-present threat of a revolt, punishment was sadistic and frequent.
    — David Segal, New York Times, 8 July 2023
  • Guests will also be stalked by The Fiend, Bray’s sadistic alter ego.
    — Tom Tapp, Deadline, 29 July 2025
  • In reality, Mittens was a stone-cold killer with a sadistic streak.
    — Matt Richtel, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2023
  • Unlike the others who were sadistic killers who took pleasure in their acts, Berkowitz’s crimes felt more like a cry for help.
    — Peter White, Deadline, 29 July 2025
  • Even Roose Bolton treats his horrible, sadistic son better than this.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 9 Feb. 2024
  • Grier plays variations on the same sadistic-lesbian stereotype in both films.
    — Katie Rife, IndieWire, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Like the best thrillers of this ilk, though, its darkest impulses do not weigh it down but rather give it a sadistic, jet-black comic edge.
    — Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 30 Oct. 2024
  • That might sound sadistic; indeed, sadism is something of a Hitchcockian virtue.
    — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Yep, Andrew's a sadistic psychopath.
    — Megan McCluskey, Time, 19 Dec. 2025
  • The film culminates in an incident of body-shaming that comes close to sadistic slapstick.
    — Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 10 Jan. 2024
  • Woody and Buzz have survived sadistic neighbors, evil toys and tyrannical daycare rulers.
    — Rachel Hale, USA Today, 26 June 2026

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