How to Use skulduggery in a Sentence

skulduggery

noun
  • Tokyo's skulduggery may be the plot line of this real-life thriller's next episode.
    — Fortune, 10 Jan. 2020
  • The scandal plumbed the depths of skulduggery in a state whose record of corruption is not proud.
    — Michael Wines and Jess Bidgood, New York Times, 16 Aug. 2016
  • Does the public know more about the skulduggery below the surface?
    — Jason Gay, WSJ, 12 Mar. 2018
  • This sort of skulduggery wasn’t limited to just the grenadine market, of course.
    — The Washington Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Two more cameras will also be running by each player to capture any skulduggery.
    — Victor Mather, New York Times, 23 Apr. 2020
  • At the very least, this skulduggery offers a contrast to the efforts which preceded it.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Because audits rely on sampling, some skulduggery will inevitably slip through.
    — The Economist, 24 May 2018
  • The outcome of the family’s skulduggery, revealed over the end credits, should be a lip-smacking wicked delight.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 14 Feb. 2026
  • This is probably simply snooping, rather than rehearsal for skulduggery.
    — The Economist, 18 July 2019
  • But that bit of procedural mystery — and hints of skulduggery — aside, the bills encountered tough opposition, maybe even more so than in the past.
    — Michael Smolens Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Sep. 2020
  • Democrats lacked the votes to filibuster, and their grilling of Gorsuch wasn’t so much an indictment of his credentials as a spasm against the skulduggery that got him there.
    — Simon Van Zuylen-Wood, Daily Intelligencer, 28 May 2018
  • Thus, whenever an autocrat makes a stirring speech about national pride, his real aim may be to deflect attention from his own skulduggery.
    — The Economist, 14 June 2018
  • Such skulduggery has even crept into supposedly democratic parts of Europe.
    — The Economist, 15 Aug. 2019
  • The election commission introduced new electronic-voting machines that are supposed to reduce the risk of skulduggery.
    — The Economist, 27 Sep. 2019
  • And the latest corporate skulduggery requires Murderbot to access its creativity in a whole new way.
    — Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post, 19 Dec. 2023
  • For Democrats, Taylor is the face of selfless public service, someone whose background and demeanor make a charge of partisan skulduggery hard to stick.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 14 Nov. 2019
  • The first season was centered around Rickwaert’s fall and desire for revenge, with the skulduggery of local Dunkirk politics in the background.
    — Elian Peltier, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2018
  • The country has grown familiar with government skulduggery leading to political demise.
    — Ann M. Simmons, latimes.com, 19 May 2017
  • This one went smoothly — no claims of rampant rigging, no significant taint of skulduggery — due in large part to the defeat of deepfakes, democracy’s newest enemy.
    — Michael Rogers, Twin Cities, 14 Jan. 2024
  • For two weeks, an extraordinary drama unfolded in the Senate, full of spectacle and skulduggery.
    — Washington Post, 22 Mar. 2018
  • The courtroom scenes remain gratifyingly sharp, and the skulduggery levels reach maximum impact.
    — Sarah Weinman, New York Times, 23 Sep. 2022
  • Ahead of this year’s event, on August 25th, organisers are hoping for scurrying without skulduggery.
    — The Economist, 22 Aug. 2019
  • The arsenic levels were similar to those found in hair samples from his wife and child--suggesting mundane arsenic sources (the stuff appeared in everything from makeup to tonics) rather than skulduggery.
    — Discover Magazine, 7 Feb. 2011
  • Fleeing both from villains and law enforcement, who suspect him in a murder, Hannay survives skulduggery in a vaudeville theater, a chase atop a speeding train and other cloak-and-dagger stuff.
    — Celia Wren, Washington Post, 18 Feb. 2020
  • And there’s something amusing about how this Astros skulduggery can be traced to the growth of instant replay, an insidious development that is ruining game flow in every single sport.
    — Jason Gay, WSJ, 15 Jan. 2020
  • Instead, Pez Outlaw goes for a tale of sugar-fueled, globetrotting skulduggery in which the stakes are exclusively personal.
    — Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Mar. 2022
  • Less serious foreign skulduggery and even accusations with little or no evidence have ruined the careers of politicians, diplomats and government officials.
    — Michael Smolens Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Aug. 2020
  • Sarah Paulson, always good at projecting steely efficiency, arrives late in the game as Tammy, a suburban housewife who turns out to be a master of corporate skulduggery.
    — Justin Chang, latimes.com, 6 June 2018
  • But whatever their official job titles, fictional TV fixers share an ability to crank up dramatic tension through the ruthless practice of skulduggery-for-hire.
    — Hugh Hart, latimes.com, 6 June 2018
  • Remember when the public had finally gotten fed up with all the corruption, skulduggery and FBI gumshoeing and decided to abandon the sport forever?
    — Jason Gay, WSJ, 18 Mar. 2018

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