How to Use show trial in a Sentence

show trial

noun
  • They were forced to confess their guilt in public show trials.
  • Have a big, flashy show trial and charge them with something frightful.
    — Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2012
  • He was charged and convicted in a show trial of stealing a poster from a hotel.
    — Anne Saker, Cincinnati.com, 12 June 2018
  • Now, President Biden says that all of these were show trials.
    — Sara Ganim, USA TODAY, 2 Aug. 2024
  • Regardless, the best way to demonstrate that something is not a show trial is to show the trial.
    — Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 26 Nov. 2023
  • Are these gonna be any better or are these just show trials, essentially, that lead to nothing?
    — Eric Johnson, Recode, 22 Aug. 2018
  • The purges and show trials were depicted as efforts to rid the country of German agents.
    — Winston Groom, WSJ, 4 Dec. 2018
  • That has led to lengthy unexplained disappearances that often end in show trials.
    — Eva Dou, WSJ, 5 Oct. 2018
  • The hearings, although not a show trial, were unquestionably designed by the Democrats to be, at least in part, a show.
    — Robert P. Baird, The New Yorker, 18 Nov. 2019
  • And against all odds, Jane survived the show trials that took her sister-in-law and husband and their friends to the scaffold, as well as the purges of new queens.
    — Phillipa Gregory, PEOPLE, 4 Oct. 2025
  • Kara-Murza has likened his prosecution to a Stalinist show trial.
    — Francesca Ebel, Washington Post, 13 May 2023
  • But that also eradicates a crucial option - to mount a show trial and scapegoat him for all the ills of his rule, thus absolving others.
    — Melik Kaylan, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026
  • The court proceedings against her are expected to be a show trial, aimed at instilling fear in others who do not support the invasion.
    — Mary Ilyushina, Washington Post, 19 Jan. 2023
  • After a show trial, Khodorkovsky was sent to prison, while the state seized control of his by-then-profitable oil company, Yukos.
    — David Klion, The New Republic, 22 Jan. 2020
  • Just a year later, Pravda took an active role in whipping up the hysteria that led to the show trials of the Great Purge.
    — Will Englund, Washington Post, 17 Jan. 2018
  • Absurd calls for a House show trial to impeach Mayorkas provide a welcome distraction.
    — Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 29 Nov. 2022
  • Otto was put on a show trial and during his 18-month imprisonment, was severely beaten and tortured.
    — Eric Shawn, Fox News, 26 Mar. 2023
  • Several of them have been subjected to show trials and forced to make public confessions to crimes against the state before being sentenced to brutal labor camps.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 9 May 2018
  • The latest show trial of Hong Kong’s most famous political prisoner will conclude this week.
    — Mark L. Clifford and L. Gordon Crovitz, WSJ, 25 Aug. 2022
  • He was then sentenced to more than 20 years in prison on embezzlement and contempt charges in what international observers dubbed a show trial.
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 20 Feb. 2024
  • He was arrested at the airport, and subsequently convicted in a show trial of violating parole and sentenced to more than two years in prison.
    — New York Times, 18 Apr. 2021
  • In this way, Richard Jewell brings edifying contrast to the current impeachment show trials.
    — Armond White, National Review, 13 Dec. 2019
  • The court case involving the Francoist throwback police culprits became a show trial for Spain’s young democracy.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 26 Mar. 2026
  • He was subsequently convicted in a show trial of violating the terms of his parole during his stay in Germany and sentenced to more than two years in prison.
    — New York Times, 1 Mar. 2021
  • Held in Vitebsk, the six-day show trial was similar to the medieval disputations with which Jews had contended for centuries.
    — Dovid Margolin, WSJ, 2 Sep. 2021
  • This charade reminds one of the show trials under former Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 14 June 2024
  • Its moral effect may expose the deliberate destructive intentions of the January 6 show trial — or what else are movies for?
    — Armond White, National Review, 6 July 2022
  • The show trial digs into the accident's cause from the cultural center of the still-dangerously radioactive town of Chernobyl.
    — Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, 26 Apr. 2018
  • In Stalin's days, which are very much in Russia's living memory, such a designation would have led to a quick show trial and, for the lucky few, a bullet in the back of the head.
    — Sam Kiley, CNN, 30 Oct. 2021
  • Even in the notorious show trials, designed to prove the legitimacy of the purges to the world, there was a laziness about the regime’s fabrications that revealed their arrogance.
    — M.t. Anderson, Slate Magazine, 18 Jan. 2017

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