How to Use wad in a Sentence

wad

1 of 2 noun
  • He spent a wad on clothes.
  • Who wouldn’t love finding a huge wad of cash?
    — Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 20 Apr. 2026
  • Grab your stretchy pants and a wad of napkins.
    — Melinda Salchert, Southern Living, 24 Feb. 2026
  • My male likes to just sit and chew it in his mouth like a wad of gum.
    — Christina Butan, PEOPLE.com, 26 July 2019
  • Some patrons grabbed a wad of bills out of their wallets to tip her.
    — Miho Inada, WSJ, 22 Apr. 2022
  • As the heat melts the gum, the wad will transfer to the cardboard.
    — Ann Wilson, Better Homes & Gardens, 25 Oct. 2023
  • The bird’s crop was filled with a softball-sized wad of hoppers.
    — Gerry Bethge, Outdoor Life, 24 Nov. 2020
  • Because this thing isn’t likely to be solved with the wave of a hand or a wad of cash.
    — Evan Grant, Dallas News, 9 Sep. 2020
  • Use a brush or wad of paper towel to coat the pan lightly with oil.
    — Aaron Hutcherson, Washington Post, 12 Nov. 2022
  • Doctors described the birth as pulling a penny out of a wad of gum.
    — Eric Todisco, PEOPLE.com, 3 Nov. 2019
  • The movie follows a father who is up to his neck in debt and finds a wad of cash at work.
    — Steven Vargas, Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2023
  • Later that night, a man handed the young woman a wad of cash.
    — Avery Schmitz, CNN Money, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The wad stays with the shot charge for some distance before peeling away.
    — Steve Meyer, Anchorage Daily News, 27 June 2020
  • Got a whole wad of dough back from Uncle Sam in the process, too.
    — Yang-Yi Goh, GQ, 17 Apr. 2018
  • But for Lowry, relief looked like the growing wad of cash in his hand.
    — Corinne Dorsey, Washington Post, 27 July 2023
  • So don’t go getting your southern panties in a wad over a bag of stuffing mix!
    — Pam Lolley, Southern Living, 10 Nov. 2023
  • Dip a rag or wad of paper towels in vegetable oil and use tongs to wipe the grill grate.
    — Erin Booke, Dallas News, 3 July 2020
  • Michigan State swooped in, waved a wad of money in his face, and that was that.
    — Sean Keeler, The Denver Post, 12 Feb. 2020
  • The page gave a deep snort, hocking a chartreuse wad against the root of the nightingale’s birch.
    — Hazlitt, 19 Nov. 2025
  • Don’t flash wads of cash or jewelry, stay away from drugs and drug dealers and don’t get drunk.
    — Nicole Sours Larson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Dec. 2023
  • There are notebooks to journal in and thick wads of paper for people to draw or paint.
    — Mary Holland, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 Apr. 2025
  • Mom keeps a wad of cash in her wardrobe, buried underneath her underwear and socks.
    — Beatrix M. Rooney, Longreads, 9 Aug. 2019
  • In his mouth, pathologists found a wad of grass, the autopsy said.
    — NBC News, 14 June 2020
  • Colbert handed a polystyrene foam cup of tea to a passerby and added a bill to a wad in her hand.
    — Gale Holland Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2021
  • In that seal, the eagle clutches golf clubs and what appears to be a wad of money in its talons.
    — Sarah Mervosh, BostonGlobe.com, 25 July 2019
  • When the person of interest came up, there was a wad of cash sticking out of her cell phone case.
    — Thomas Jewell, cleveland, 24 Sep. 2022
  • You may be offered a hefty wad of rewards points as an incentive to keep the account open.
    — Liz Weston, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Jan. 2024
  • Knead the putty thoroughly to mix the two parts, then jam the wad into the socket.
    — Jeanne Huber, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2024
  • Johnsen said Jackson always carried a wad of cash and used it to tip people.
    — Hartford Courant, courant.com, 16 Apr. 2018
  • Waits rips a hunk of tire ad off the back page, works it into a wad, bends down and wedges the wobbly leg of his table.
    — Bart Bull, Spin, 8 Aug. 2023

wad

2 of 2 verb
  • Just a ball and, in a pinch, wadded up socks or paper will do.
    — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 18 July 2023
  • The idea is to wad up a sheet of aluminum foil and place it in your utensil basket.
    — Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 21 May 2026
  • After 30 minutes or so, wad up the towels and use them to scrub and wipe off the glass.
    — Jeanne Huber, Washington Post, 1 Mar. 2024
  • On some trips, the boys would convince Dad to play football, wadding up a sock to serve as their pigskin.
    — Jeff Miller, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2023
  • Simply tear off a sheet of heavy-duty foil, wad it up to form a homemade scouring pad, and get to scrubbing.
    — Darcy Lenz, Southern Living, 24 Sep. 2025
  • Simply tear off a sheet of heavy-duty foil, wad it up to form a homemade scouring pad, and get to scrubbing.
    — Darcy Lenz, Southern Living, 17 Feb. 2026
  • Simply tear off a sheet of heavy-duty foil, wad it up to form a homemade scouring pad, and get to scrubbing.
    — Darcy Lenz, Southern Living, 6 June 2026
  • Dryer balls also help prevent the duvet from wadding up on one side of the machine.
    — Abigail Wilt, Southern Living, 31 May 2025
  • People were bringing him fistfuls of cheap paper napkins to wad up right under his nose.
    — C. Mallon, Harpers Magazine, 18 June 2025
  • Squeeze as much water out of the quilt as possible, being careful not to wad, wring or bunch the quilt with your hands.
    — oregonlive, 15 Oct. 2020
  • The pieces are ultra-light, and eco-friendly, mixing recycled down and wadding padding.
    — Andrea Onate, Footwear News, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Squib loads, or loads with insufficient or no powder to drive the bullet, shot or wad out of the barrel, create an obstruction.
    — Steve Meyer, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Mar. 2021
  • Using a grill brush, thoroughly scrape the grill grate clean and oil it (wad up paper towels, dip them briefly in vegetable oil, then use tongs to rub the grill grate with them).
    — Dallas News, 1 June 2021
  • Still, for many families, the apps are a more efficient mode of communication than, say, a flier wadded up in a kid’s backpack.
    — Anna North, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
  • In a locker room, cliches about teamwork and selflessness often fly around like the practice jerseys that are wadded up and tossed into massive piles atop rolling carts.
    — David Aldridge, The Athletic, 29 Dec. 2024
  • Winter dutifully wrote everything down, hung up the phone, and handed the paper to Chase — who promptly wadded it up into a ball and threw it in the trash, unread.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 3 Jan. 2024
  • Standing in her massive walk-in closet in Manhattan, Gala tapes wads of cash to her body before frantically packing a suitcase.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 26 June 2024
  • The cellulosic cattail fiber is spun into wadding with a 20 percent binder currently made from a biodegradable poly filament, as used to secure those fibers together.
    — Alexandra Harrell, Sourcing Journal, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Fabrics used include pure Irish linen, cotton poplin, techno tulle and wadding, as well as natural yarn blends with modern technical finishes to achieve a lightweight and clean aesthetic.
    — Joanne Shurvell, Forbes, 20 Sep. 2024
  • One game after being wadded up and tossed aside like a hot dog wrapper by a Timberwolves team that was just hungrier, the Lakers pushed and shoved and fought their way into personifying a must-win.
    — Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2025
  • Flaherty’s subjects allege that these facilities release addicts into the streets after weeks of nonexistent treatments and hand them wads of cash as a participation fee, knowing full well where that money is likely to be spent.
    — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 14 Mar. 2025
  • The Socks Are Inside Other Clothes Did the sock actually enter another space-time continuum—or did it get wadded up in someone's pant leg?
    — Katie Cloyd, Martha Stewart, 5 Jan. 2026

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