How to Use cannibalize in a Sentence

cannibalize

verb
  • Many parts of the engine were cannibalized from older cars.
  • He cannibalized one washing machine to fix another.
  • Writers didn’t want to do punch-ups on potentially crummy AI scripts or have their words (or ideas) cannibalized by large language models that didn’t pay them a dime.
    Marah Eakin, WIRED, 17 Oct. 2024
  • That could mean that the Max 10 runs a risk of cannibalizing sales of the Max 9.
    Julie Johnsson, Bloomberg.com, 19 June 2017
  • This is a species that will cannibalize its young and full-grown adults if food is scarce enough.
    Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics, 29 Sep. 2019
  • This weekend, the Big 10 and Big 12 will cannibalize their own.
    Paul Daugherty, The Enquirer, 25 Nov. 2021
  • Many in the Donner Party refused to cannibalize at the cost of their lives.
    Cody Cassidy, Wired, 13 Jan. 2021
  • Retiring some of the B-1Bs will allow the Air Force to cannibalize them for spare parts, many of which are no longer available.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 22 Feb. 2021
  • At times, he's been able to encourage farmers to buy two of the same tractor and cannibalize one for parts.
    NBC News, 14 Oct. 2021
  • Not only are the ships old, some have been cannibalized to keep existing ships still in the fleet running.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 21 Feb. 2019
  • This paints a clear picture of a VA forced to cannibalize itself in order to pay for care in the private sector.
    Joe Davidson, Washington Post, 11 June 2018
  • Among invertebrates, there are rules of thumb: Females cannibalize more often than males; the old and young are the first to go.
    Libby Copeland, Slate Magazine, 9 Jan. 2017
  • Given how weak the box office has been so far this year, surely one movie would cannibalize the other.
    Time, 25 July 2023
  • Many parts from these demos were already deemed perfect as-is and would be cannibalized into the mix of finished songs.
    Adam Steiner, SPIN, 8 Mar. 2024
  • In a press briefing during the lead-up to the 7a's release, Google was asked about cannibalizing Pixel 7 sales with the release of the Pixel 7a.
    Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 10 May 2023
  • But the shift seemed to merely cannibalize Black Friday sales.
    Anne D'innocenzio, Anchorage Daily News, 22 Nov. 2021
  • A new video has captured a gruesome and little seen side to polar bears: When times are tough, males cannibalize cubs.
    Michael Greshko, National Geographic, 23 Feb. 2016
  • Fleets are also likely to shrink, as more planes are cannibalized.
    Aurora Almendral, Quartz, 2 Mar. 2023
  • Baseball isn’t likely to cannibalize the success of the Timbers and Thorns, either.
    John Canzano, oregonlive, 24 May 2021
  • That may prove a difficult line to walk - and could end up simply cannibalizing sales from West Elm.
    The Washington Post, OregonLive.com, 26 May 2017
  • The city seemed to drag its feet on the issue, partly out of concerns that DoBi would cannibalize Divvy ridership.
    John Greenfield, Chicago Reader, 1 May 2018
  • Sooner or later Disney will run out of its own movies to cannibalize.
    Cicero Estrella, The Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2019
  • Its days of cannibalizing movie and TV writing roles aren’t far away either.
    Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 6 June 2023
  • There’s a risk of Boeing cannibalizing its sales of new freighters, but the company says first-quarter sales of those new jets were more than double the total for the whole of last year.
    Alan Murray, Fortune, 4 Apr. 2018
  • Jobs will be cannibalized over time and replaced by others.
    Meghann Farnsworth, Recode, 7 Apr. 2018
  • The females, typically larger than the males, have been known to cannibalize the smaller males.
    Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 1 Sep. 2022
  • Scalise’s loss is the latest evidence that the party would rather cannibalize itself than lead the country.
    Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, The New Republic, 13 Oct. 2023
  • In its race to catch up with Microsoft, Google must try to avoid cannibalizing itself.
    Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2023
  • The negative: There's only so much room and the borderline teams tend to cannibalize each other.
    Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY, 18 Feb. 2020
  • For a while, the segment was a bright spot for the company as streaming lost billions of dollars while cannibalizing its cable networks and theatrical movie releases.
    Samantha Masunaga, Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2024

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