How to Use merchant marine in a Sentence

merchant marine

noun
Definition of merchant marinenext
  • Later, Wright served in the army and joined the merchant marine.
    — Alice George, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Mar. 2021
  • The other five were friends — four of them old merchant marine sailors.
    — Carl Nolte, SFChronicle.com, 3 Oct. 2020
  • The Irishman was working as a merchant marine in Europe when he was captured by the British and sent to colonize Roanoke.
    — Michael E. Miller, Washington Post, 17 Mar. 2018
  • The trips were part of the studies for becoming a merchant marine officer.
    — David Taylor, Houston Chronicle, 22 Jan. 2018
  • Hammett wasn’t close with his father, a merchant marine.
    — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 28 Nov. 2022
  • The law sought to encourage U.S. shipbuilding and grow the nation’s merchant marine force.
    — Catherine Traywick, Bloomberg.com, 28 Sep. 2017
  • Maria Flores raised five sons while the family patriarch, Raul Sr., was away for months at a time as a merchant marine.
    — New York Times, 4 Feb. 2022
  • His mother worked as a hotel housekeeper, and his father was in the merchant marine.
    — Jon Caramanica, BostonGlobe.com, 10 June 2019
  • Chinese villagers free a merchant marine captain from the communists to take them to Hong Kong in a stern-wheeler.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2019
  • Jean, the oldest brother who was a merchant marine, applies his discipline to keep their warehouse across the street in order.
    — Leah Siesfeld, sun-sentinel.com, 13 Oct. 2020
  • So, there is no robust U.S. merchant marine available to fill the gap in sealift in the event of an emergency, and there likely would be no time to build or acquire one in a future conflict.
    — Loren Thompson, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2021
  • The other leader, Lt. Ihor, 32, a broad-shouldered Odessa merchant marine engineer with a shaved head, seemed more comfortable in his new role.
    — Yaroslav Trofimov, WSJ, 17 Aug. 2022
  • His father, a merchant marine, was often away and his mother, an immigrant from Belize, had trouble adapting to life in the States.
    — Rebecca Keegan, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 July 2023
  • Richardson had been born in London and had gone to sea at the age of 12, at first working as a cabin boy in the British merchant marine, then working his way up the ranks until becoming a captain.
    — Gary Kamiya, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 May 2022
  • Maybe someone out there heard a story -- a rumor even -- passed down through the years, of the merchant marine and father who simply vanished from Mason City, Iowa on a November day in 1955.
    — Juliet Muir, NBC News, 26 May 2018
  • Snake Island’s liberation signaled to the Ukrainian merchant marine that the western Black Sea was safe for commerce.
    — David Axe, Forbes, 18 Aug. 2022
  • As Hupp and her parents dined, George Hennard, a former merchant marine, drove a pickup through the restaurant window and moments later started shooting.
    — Dallas News, 11 July 2022
  • The former paratrooper started in the merchant marine as an able-bodied seaman, working his way up to become a mate and eventually a master.
    — Kevin Koenig, Robb Report, 15 July 2023
  • His father, a merchant marine, was an abusive alcoholic.
    — New York Times, 12 July 2018
  • After graduating in 1919, Calder spent a few years testing out career options, among them becoming a merchant marine and working in a ship’s boiler room.
    — Rachel Corbett, The Atlantic, 12 Apr. 2020
  • And the labor supply issues in merchant marine transportation are emblematic of the conundrum seen in a variety of decently paying, male-heavy jobs in the trades.
    — Talmon Joseph Smith Lindsey Wasson, New York Times, 6 Dec. 2022
  • His father was a former merchant marine who moved the family to Richland, Wash., a town mostly built by the federal government for workers at the Hanford nuclear site.
    — Robert F. Worth, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2018
  • Her partner, a merchant marine, is regularly away for monthslong trips.
    — Elissa Strauss, CNN, 14 Nov. 2020
  • Education matters Their father was a merchant Marine; mom was a homemaker.
    — Roy S. Johnson, AL.com, 17 Sep. 2017
  • There is also an urgent need for a merchant marine capable of supporting the military in wartime and a cadre of skilled tradesmen who can perform vital industrial tasks such as welding and pipe-fitting.
    — Alexander B. Gray, WSJ, 18 Aug. 2022
  • Judging from trends in the industry, though, current cargo-preference requirements are not adequate to maintain a robust merchant marine.
    — Loren Thompson, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2021
  • The 1920 census gives his occupation as merchant marine officer.
    — Greg Daugherty, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Apr. 2022
  • Anthony, who has had careers as a scuba diver, carpenter, skydiver, merchant marine and cabinet maker, enjoys riding a motorcycle.
    — Diane Fiske, Philly.com, 16 May 2018
  • Among the limited number of economic sectors where the Chinese challenge to national security stands out as a problem lending itself to political solution, the U.S. merchant marine is especially noteworthy.
    — Loren Thompson, Forbes, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Kathleen is relentlessly animated and quick-witted, with thick tangerine hair, steely eyes, and an endearing personal idiolect that suggests both an autodidactic reading in philosophy and economics and the gusty crudity of the merchant marine.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, WIRED, 18 June 2018

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