How to Use swat in a Sentence
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Kiessling waved her hand, as if to swat away the label.
—Eren Orbey, The New Yorker, 5 Dec. 2022
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Marchand tried to swat it out of the air and into the net, but couldn’t.
—BostonGlobe.com, 21 Mar. 2022
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As the ball arrives, the rookie sticks a white glove out to swat it away.
—Nate Atkins, The Indianapolis Star, 30 Sep. 2022
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But few have had to swat away fakers for as long as Collins has.
—David Browne, Rolling Stone, 25 Nov. 2022
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Ruiz threw the ball into the end zone, but it was swatted down to end the back-and-forth affair.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Sep. 2023
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The first mosquitoes are always the big slow ones that are easy to swat.
—John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 24 Apr. 2021
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The cattle pair off, end to end, and use their tails to swat the bugs from each others’ faces.
—K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 17 Apr. 2021
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Compared with Tanya or Shane or Shane’s mom, Rachel is too easy to swat away.
—Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2021
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Reaching the shift lever is as easy as swatting a fly off your knee.
—Fred M.h. Gregory, Car and Driver, 12 July 2023
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The ball went up and Adem Bona, the Bruins’ new rim protector, stepped over to swat the shot.
—Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2022
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In college, Zion Williamson was a constant threat to come out of nowhere and swat a shot into the fifth row.
—Christian Clark, NOLA.com, 11 Dec. 2020
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Davis would have swatted or altered or just plain stopped much of that mess.
—Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 17 Mar. 2024
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And Pal flew in from behind and swatted Anderson’s layup off the backboard to save the game.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Jan. 2024
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They have also been observed using sticks and leaves to swat away flies.
—Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics, 14 Apr. 2022
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Avoid swatting at the bees or flailing your arms, which can aggravate the bees.
—Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 20 Sep. 2023
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Dickinson then swatted a layup attempt on one end and added a hook on the other to cap the 11-0 run.
—Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press, 15 Mar. 2023
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Ask Xavier, which needed to swat away a shot by 14-seed Kennesaw State.
—Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Mar. 2023
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Rui Patrício wrong-footed and late to swat the ball away.
—BostonGlobe.com, 27 June 2021
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In the second quarter, Davis sprinted the length of the court to chase down Devin Booker and swat away his layup — only to wrench his left knee.
—New York Times, 28 May 2021
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The cycle—theirs, a loud act of survival; ours, a loud act of trying to swat them away—will continue.
—Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 16 June 2021
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Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively each swatted several shots at the rim into the stands.
—Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 14 Mar. 2024
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On the very next snap, Ngakoue got enough of a jump to beat the tackle just with his speed and reached out that left arm to swat the ball as Mahomes went to throw.
—Nate Atkins, The Indianapolis Star, 27 Sep. 2022
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While walking the grounds during construction, Mr. Dye had picked up a knobby, crooked stick and used it to swat at a stone.
—Richard Goldstein, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2020
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Entering the season, the Orioles were 1-9 when the switch-hitter swatted two long balls.
—Jacob Calvin Meyer, Baltimore Sun, 24 Aug. 2023
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Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill couldn't control the rebound and Robertson hit the puck to himself and swatted it out of the air into the net.
—Mike Brehm, USA TODAY, 26 May 2023
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He’s used to swatting back at resistance to how form meets function here.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 25 July 2023
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But there was no margin for error with 16 seconds to play and a high leaper approaching the rim, only for Zubac to swat away the threat.
—Andrew Greif, Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2022
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The executive did his best to swat down any perception of chaos.
—Nicolás Rivero, Quartz, 5 Mar. 2021
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Several times, Jahvon Quinerly drove to the rim and had his layup swatted away.
—Mike Rodak | Mrodak@al.com, al, 25 Mar. 2023
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Don’t waste your summer swatting and chasing away pesky pests.
—Cincinnati Enquirer, The Enquirer, 29 Mar. 2024
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The game’s executives blamed the deficit of swat on the height of the mound.
—Diana Nelson Jones, Detroit Free Press, 30 Sep. 2017
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For Williams, that tone-setting swat was just the start.
—BostonGlobe.com, 23 May 2021
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The Twins are about to get some swat and some sock back in their lineup.
—La Velle E. Neal Iii, Star Tribune, 14 June 2021
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Davis could just hang in the paint and use his 7-6 wingspan to swat anything close to the rim.
—Connor Letourneau, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 May 2023
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But all of these methods risk being met with a deft swat from the host.
—Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 2 Dec. 2019
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SWAT occupied a string of houses and held the line there.
—Victor J. Blue, The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2017
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Turkey had gone 0 for 9 on shots to take the lead before Ilyasova’s swat bounced off the rim and dropped through the net.
—Tim Reynolds, The Denver Post, 3 Sep. 2019
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In many cultures, a swat on the bottom of a child who had stepped out of line was often enough.
—Meghan Leahy, chicagotribune.com, 5 July 2018
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Turkey had gone 0 for 9 on shots before Ilyasova’s swat bounced off the rim and dropped through the net.
—Tim Reynolds, BostonGlobe.com, 3 Sep. 2019
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Finch was not the intended target of the swat, and lived at an old address for Gaskill.
—Washington Post, 23 May 2018
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The swats left black, blue and purple bruises from the boy’s hip to his knee and a bruised foot that left him limping for days.
—Washington Post, 18 Apr. 2018
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By this time, our SWAT teams were scouring every inch of the downtown area in search of snipers.
—David Brown, Esquire, 9 June 2017
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The woman in blue swats the other woman's hands away as the car begins to back up.
—Scott Berson, charlotteobserver, 22 May 2018
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The fumble was his, the result of a blind-side swat from the ageless and omnipresent Terrell Suggs.
—Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 10 Sep. 2017
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Michigan State’s shot-blocking freshman launched for the swat.
—Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press, 10 Dec. 2017
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Then, on a tarmac in Israel in May, the First Lady evaded the president's grasp with a swat heard round the world.
—Evelyn Wang, Allure, 6 Feb. 2018
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As the dog barked at the wild animal, the bear began to circle the pet and swat at it, the man told Erratt, according to the report.
—Jared Gilmour, miamiherald, 29 May 2018
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Anyone who saw Smith swat shots, rebound and dunk at Maryland would agree.
—Duane Rankin, The Arizona Republic, 19 Apr. 2021
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Twins’ DH just couldn’t beat out that sultan of swat: Robbie Grossman.
—Kevin Cusick, Twin Cities, 2 Apr. 2017
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When asked which swat was the most important, Ibaka couldn’t quite answer.
—Sean Gregory/oakland, Time, 6 June 2019
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His volleyball-like swat of Jokic in the first half was memorable.
—Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 20 Aug. 2020
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In addition to swats and pilfers, Tate also led the Norse in infractions.
—Marc Hardin, Cincinnati.com, 24 Jan. 2018
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SWAT officers responded to the home but after it was cleared Tuesday night the suspect was not there.
—Harry Harris, The Mercury News, 31 May 2017
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The teams put on a lively show, trading ice hockey-style fast breaks, sneaky steals, and explosive backhand swats.
—Anthony Flint, BostonGlobe.com, 16 May 2018
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One swat with a powerful paw can level a hive, so after losing a few Walton built his bees a fortress.
—Mychel Matthews, idahostatesman, 11 June 2017
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Ashlyn Harris continued to stand stalwart between the posts for the Pride, knocking away the Red Stars’ best chance of the game with an off-balanced swat of her right hand.
—Julia Poe, Pro Soccer USA, 23 Aug. 2019
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Without the help of dopamine, the neurons fired less frequently with the scents, which suggests that the bugs would be less able to learn to avoid odors associated with swats.
—Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 5 Feb. 2018
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Andrew Jones grabbed the second swat and found Jase Febres in transition, who threw down a monstrous dunk to give Texas a 37-29 advantage.
—Alex Briseno, Dallas News, 15 Jan. 2020
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Burton followed up with an emphatic swat of a Jackson layup, a play that produced an eruption from the home crowd.
—Jack Carney, Indianapolis Star, 2 Jan. 2018
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No one on the Pacers' roster has more leaping ability, and that allows Jackson to swat shots at the rim and finish lobs even when the passes aren't perfectly timed.
—Dustin Dopirak, The Indianapolis Star, 10 Apr. 2023
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'swat.' 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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