How to Use mandible in a Sentence

mandible

noun
Definition of mandiblenext
Synonyms for mandiblenext
  • Fire ants use their mandibles (jaws) just to latch on to your skin.
    — Dennis Pillion | Dpillion@al.com, AL.com, 20 Aug. 2017
  • Why does the Falcon have a gap between its front mandibles?
    — Dan Gvozden, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 June 2018
  • The jawbone is part of an adult mandible, but its height points to a person of short stature and small body size.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 6 June 2018
  • After Lavin complained of pain in his jaw, X-rays showed there was a hole in his mandible.
    — John Maffei, sandiegouniontribune.com, 4 May 2017
  • The fossil, a mandible for chewing, was first discovered in 1980 by a monk.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 6 May 2019
  • But termites, with their strong, sharp mandibles, aren’t easy prey, and raiders often get limbs bitten off in the fight.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 14 Feb. 2018
  • The museum currently has a right mandible from a right whale, which was found in 1907.
    — USA TODAY, 1 July 2019
  • The bees soon cut several holes in the leaves of each plant using their mandibles and proboscises.
    — Jim Daley, Scientific American, 21 May 2020
  • Scientists have been studying the mandible (and the area where it was discovered) since 2010.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 6 May 2019
  • While Janzen can’t say if the jewel’s goo is toxic or not, the stuff can gum up the mandibles of something like an attacking ant.
    — Matt Simon, WIRED, 30 Oct. 2015
  • So far, the researchers have identified 51 mammoth mandibles and 64 skulls, the researchers said.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 16 Mar. 2020
  • Dawson broke off parts of the orangutan mandible that would reveal a poor fit with the human skull, and reshaped the teeth with a metal file.
    — Daniel T. Ksepka, Scientific American, 1 Dec. 2023
  • Others, like the trap-jaw ant, use their mandibles to catapult themselves to safety.
    — National Geographic, 19 Apr. 2018
  • In the tunnels and on the dusty earth, termites fell by the score and warrior ants lost limbs and perished under the pincer shear of terrible mandibles.
    — William Herkewitz, Popular Mechanics, 14 Apr. 2017
  • Still, all the extra weight and much larger mandibles are probably worth something.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 29 Aug. 2023
  • The head is a compact black bullet from which emerge long thick spikes of hair, two segmented antennae, and clamp-like mandibles.
    — Daisy Alioto, The New York Review of Books, 27 Mar. 2020
  • The skeleton belongs to the Ophthalmosaurus family of ichthyosaurs—huge-eyed creatures with long, thin mandibles that helped them catch fish and squid.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 27 Oct. 2017
  • The nematodes have even been used to save Florida oranges from demise at the hungry mandibles of the citrus root weevil.
    — Kyle Frischkorn, Smithsonian, 25 July 2017
  • At some point during his stay, the monk found a strange mandible — a single length of jawbone studded with a handful of enormous molars.
    — Richard Pallardy, Discover Magazine, 17 Jan. 2022
  • Up to an inch and a half long, the hornet is equipped with powerful mandibles capable of shearing smaller insects to pieces.
    — National Geographic, 8 Feb. 2020
  • Trap-jaw ants use spring actuation to launch their mandibles to capture prey, while grasshoppers use their springy legs to kick away predators.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 28 Aug. 2023
  • These pre-meal encounters often lead to dangerous injuries from a termite’s fierce mandibles, which can pierce the ants with rapid blows.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 3 Jan. 2024
  • Carpenter bees Black thumb-sized carpenter bees with shiny abdomens and strong mandibles.
    — The Arizona Republic, 14 Feb. 2024
  • When the mandible was discovered, it was still encased in a hard travertine block and only partially exposed.
    — Brian Anthony Keeling, The Conversation, 2 May 2023
  • Plenty of ants have mandibles that quickly snap shut, but the Dracula ant's appeared to work differently.
    — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 12 Dec. 2018
  • The 4,000-year-old skull and mandible of an Egyptian man show signs of cancerous lesions and tool marks, according to a recent paper published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 5 June 2024
  • Two species of Myrmoteras trap-jaw ant use a special set of joints and muscles to spring-load their massive mandibles before releasing them to slam shut on prey, according to a new study.
    — Carrie Arnold, National Geographic, 30 Aug. 2017
  • The discovery was rare because both the animal's mandible and a tusk were exposed to the surface, Houde said in a paper published on his website about Jude's discovery.
    — Amy B Wang, chicagotribune.com, 21 July 2017
  • The scientists even documented a butterfly stealing a droplet of nectar straight from the mandibles of an ant, the first time this has been documented.
    — National Geographic, 15 June 2016
  • Despite its small size, the Niah Cave mandible is very robust, especially at points where chewing muscles attach and at the base of the molars, which means this person did a lot of tough chewing.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 6 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mandible.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: