How to Use turgid in a Sentence

turgid

adjective
  • The stars were misaligned from the start for this frantic, turgid thriller.
    — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 8 Nov. 2018
  • Like many disaster movies, this is a turgid soap opera that’s blown apart by chaos.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2025
  • The water, in the turgid, late afternoon light, was gray and swift.
    — Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
  • Jon Ingold finds most video game writing empty at best, turgid at worst.
    — Samuel Horti, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2025
  • Arsenal is still 8 points out of fourth place, behind all of its main rivals and locked in turgid form.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 1 Feb. 2018
  • Rigorous but not turgid, the book paints a picture where the good guys are not always pure, and sometimes do bad things.
    — Beth Py-Lieberman, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Nov. 2021
  • Musically speaking, both songs are stolid, turgid, and no fun.
    — David Cantwell, Time, 24 Aug. 2023
  • There is a bittersweet suggestion made by this turgid, solemnly weighted film.
    — Mark Olsen Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2021
  • Against the backdrop of poor results, turgid football, sky-high ticket prices and a lack of faith in the new-look board, fan unrest is growing.
    — Dan Kilpatrick, New York Times, 30 Jan. 2026
  • Recording sessions for the album were reportedly tense, and the results were turgid.
    — Jody Rosen, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2021
  • But much of the rest of the island lies in the chokehold of a turgid, frustrating and perilous slog toward recovery.
    — Alaska Dispatch News, 11 Oct. 2017
  • For all its immensity and depth, the sea did not have, never had, and never will have its rhythm in a pair of turgid tetas the size of two corozos.
    — Lawrence Jackson, Harper's Magazine, 10 July 2023
  • Cars were barely visible under several feet of turgid stormwater, as record rainfall fell on the city.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 10 Dec. 2022
  • The dogs reach the banks of the Luangwa River — 300 feet wide there and turgid from weeks of steady rain.
    — New York Times, 20 June 2022
  • Forest fans were willing to forgive some rather turgid soccer and dreadful results as long as there was a chance Cooper could keep them up.
    — Steve Price, Forbes, 25 Nov. 2024
  • To make virtual fundraisers less like turgid Zoom meetings for work, a couple of Texans have shipped out wine and snacks to donors.
    — Tom Benning, Dallas News, 1 July 2020
  • But, somehow, Clarkson found the faint sliver of light in that otherwise dim forest of turgid inner turmoil.
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 7 May 2024
  • In that respect, summits like the Bali meeting matter more than the turgid statements released afterward.
    — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 14 Nov. 2022
  • Romero's final film is also one of his worst, a turgid blend of soap opera and horror that seems to have little interest in advancing itself forward.
    — Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 19 Jan. 2023
  • But professors who attempt to dress up or show off their learning by employing dense, turgid language do their fields—and their students—a great disservice.
    — Michael Zimm, WSJ, 2 Mar. 2018
  • This emerges in his painfully maladroit efforts to lend color to a turgid narrative preoccupied with self-flattery and score-settling.
    — Jonathan Stevenson, The New York Review of Books, 3 Aug. 2020
  • There’s nothing to play because there’s nothing of any interest in the character, or in the whole mysteriously turgid film.
    — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 14 Apr. 2022
  • Now their carcasses were being spewed forth in untold thousands by the rushing waters, to be carried away on the crest of the foaming, turgid flood rushing down the valley.
    — H.w. Brands, Time, 22 Oct. 2019
  • This new singer recited turgid poetry over his new bandmates’ compositions, which erred towards brittle reggae and boogie.
    — Brad Shoup, Pitchfork, 24 Jan. 2026
  • The Germans promptly went to work on Das Reboot, overhauling their development system and turgid style of play.
    — Bill Saporito, Time, 9 July 2021
  • Babar needs to throw his weight around and demand more suitable home pitches otherwise Pakistan will start moulding into the turgid team that finished this mostly dreary series.
    — Tristan Lavalette, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2022
  • He was quickly flown back to Moscow, a trial date was no less quickly set — and then the turgid legal process of one exasperating delay after another took command of events.
    — Howard Blum, Washington Post, 26 June 2024
  • The next day the European Commission’s turgid daily press briefing was broadcast live on Catalan television.
    — The Economist, 14 Oct. 2017
  • That turgid style appears to be incrementally changing in the wake of Diaz-Canel becoming president in April.
    — Washington Post, 22 June 2018
  • As the truly turgid game against Milan at San Siro exemplified, Juve’s lack of creativity has been a major theme of their season.
    — Emmet Gates, Forbes, 27 Jan. 2022

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