How to Use persecute in a Sentence

persecute

verb
Definition of persecutenext
Synonyms for persecutenext
  • They were persecuted for their beliefs.
  • The country's leaders relentlessly persecuted those who fought against the regime.
  • The Taliban have been known to persecute and kill Christians.
    — Nayeli Lomeli, USA TODAY, 20 Sep. 2021
  • Antisemitism should not be seen as free speech but [as] hate speech and must be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
    — Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News, 23 Oct. 2023
  • Only Trump would try to scare them with all the ways in which he himself is being persecuted.
    — Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 15 June 2023
  • But today the habit of persecuting the Jews, brothers and sisters, is here reborn.
    — Jta Staff, sun-sentinel.com, 13 Nov. 2019
  • Nero blamed Rome's Christians for this 64 A.D. disaster and used it as an excuse to persecute them.
    — Hannah Yasharoff, USA TODAY, 28 Jan. 2022
  • Despite the fact that over 6,000 have been arrested, and many have been persecuted, Hong Kong people still fight back.
    — Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Dec. 2019
  • The officials said the U.S. would not deport Venezuelans who prove they could be persecuted if returned to Venezuela.
    — Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News, 5 Oct. 2023
  • Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has claimed he is being persecuted by his opponents.
    — Sarah Ellison and Greg Jaffe, Anchorage Daily News, 7 Aug. 2023
  • People have not understood it and people have persecuted and hated and all the things.
    — Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 19 Sep. 2023
  • Asylum seekers, or refugees, would have to prove more fully that they would be tortured or persecuted if they are turned away from the United States.
    — Anna Giaritelli, Washington Examiner, 11 June 2020
  • And Christians are huddled, cold and hungry in a corner and persecuted.
    — ABC News, 17 Dec. 2023
  • The Taliban has been known to persecute Christians under their regime, but that is not what is occurring in this viral photo.
    — Devon Link, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2021
  • If they’d been caught by the federal government, they could’ve been persecuted like the Rosenbergs.
    — Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug. 2023
  • In recent years, many of the Milwaukee refugees have been Rohingya, a stateless people considered among the most persecuted in the world.
    — Annysa Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2 Mar. 2020
  • The cruelty of how the US persecutes those who have broken its laws is something many Europeans marvel at.
    — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 10 Aug. 2019
  • This is for migrants who prove a more-likely-than-not chance of being persecuted by the government in their country of origin.
    — Gustavo Solis, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Sep. 2019
  • Her people are Yazidis, a minority in northern Iraq that is poor, persecuted and bound by faith to its revered Mount Sinjar.
    — Scott Pelley, CBS News, 13 Oct. 2019
  • Israel has emerged as one of the world’s most gay-friendly travel destinations in recent years, in sharp contrast to the rest of the Middle East, where gays are persecuted and even killed.
    — Tia Goldenberg, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Feb. 2020
  • This reminds me: The Jehovah’s Witnesses are banned in Russia and, moreover, persecuted in the courts.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 11 Dec. 2019
  • That was before or after the dog ate the homework, the check got lost in the mail, and whatever else Michigan folks have thrown out there already to suggest they are unfairly persecuted.
    — Terence Moore, Forbes, 13 Nov. 2023
  • Could the panel agree on that: not to actively persecute minorities but to let the majority control the public square?
    — Kathryn Joyce, The New Republic, 6 Jan. 2022
  • Nigeria’s Shias say they are being persecuted by the country’s larger Muslim group, the Sunnis.
    — Washington Post, 23 July 2019
  • Its people enjoy broad free-speech rights and are not persecuted for the practice of their respective religions.
    — Isaac Schorr, National Review, 14 Apr. 2020
  • These measures are also being used to persecute Muslims, to a lesser degree.
    — New York Times, 23 Dec. 2021
  • All the while, the former president has riled up supporters who largely think Trump is being persecuted.
    — Alex Leary, WSJ, 24 Oct. 2023
  • In the week following Palm Sunday, Jesus taught many lessons before being persecuted and killed.
    — Jamie Ballard, Woman's Day, 29 Mar. 2023
  • Like other wolves, these animals were hunted and persecuted on a massive scale in the 19th and early 20th century.
    — National Geographic, 27 July 2019
  • They have been persecuted in countries such as Iran and Iraq, including a 2014 Islamic State attack that killed thousands.
    — Avedis Hadjian, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Oct. 2023

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