How to Use sacrificial in a Sentence

sacrificial

adjective
Definition of sacrificialnext
  • Fire pits found at the site may have once been used for large sacrificial fires.
    — Elizabeth Djinis, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 July 2022
  • Taylor-Joy’s Sandie is opaque, but in the right way: the sacrificial fetish in a vortex of fear.
    — Mark Olsen Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2021
  • To Black, 33, that's the sound of bravery, hope and a mother's sacrificial love.
    — Eric Adler, kansascity, 10 May 2018
  • The site has 22 stone chambers, stone walls, a sacrificial tablet and drains.
    — Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2021
  • Maybe there was a need for a new type of sacrificial victim.
    — National Geographic, 26 Apr. 2018
  • The priests would dip the goat’s hides in strips into sacrificial blood and then go and gently slap women and crop fields with the bloody hide.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2023
  • Aztec priests cut open the chests of sacrificial victims and offered their still-beating hearts to the gods.
    — Tilak Doshi, Forbes, 13 Aug. 2023
  • These act as sacrificial pawns, much like the seed beetle’s shield eggs.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 14 Sep. 2011
  • Now if Heat want to trade Meyers Leonard, who would be sacrificial pawn this time around?
    — Ira Winderman, sun-sentinel.com, 16 Mar. 2021
  • No way New England could pay him $24 million a year when Tom Brady is taking a sacrificial half of that to help the team.
    — Dave Hyde, Sun-Sentinel.com, 18 Dec. 2017
  • Do: Pre-chill cooler with sacrificial ice or ice pack—things will stay cold longer.
    — Bradley Ford, Popular Mechanics, 23 June 2020
  • The opera, which is in three acts and plays without a break, opens with a sacrificial throat slashing of an Iphigenia.
    — Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 21 Feb. 2022
  • When love is the way -- unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive, when love is the way.
    — Cnn Staff, CNN, 19 May 2018
  • That brings us to Option 3, which is some sort of sacrificial firing.
    — Jamie Samuelsen, Detroit Free Press, 2 Dec. 2019
  • Still, the bones likely belonged to sacrificial victims, the study said.
    — Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 24 Jan. 2024
  • Coolers: Dos and Don’ts Pre-chill cooler with sacrificial ice or ice pack—things will stay cold longer.
    — Bradley Ford, Popular Mechanics, 25 June 2019
  • So in 2018 Williams tried planting a massive trap crop of wine caps — a sort of sacrificial offering to the local deer.
    — Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 15 May 2024
  • And why did the Maya take their sacrificial rites underground?
    — Discover Magazine, 10 May 2017
  • The use of adam here appears to express the hope that, through the sacrificial service, the individual comes close to God.
    — Rabbi Avi Weiss, sun-sentinel.com, 7 Mar. 2022
  • The Dolphins, Marlins and Panthers have done it with sacrificial blueprints through the years.
    — Dave Hyde, sun-sentinel.com, 2 Aug. 2021
  • Is there a sacrificial structure for antler rubbing that could be built?
    — oregonlive, 30 Jan. 2021
  • East of the temple is a sacrificial altar, where ancient Greeks would make offerings to the god.
    — Corryn Wetzel, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Nov. 2020
  • The animal was buried in a sacrificial pit outside Wen’s grave, with its head facing the tomb and its tail facing west.
    — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Aug. 2023
  • The climax is a punishing sacrificial dance by a woman in a red dress.
    — The New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2023
  • Hesiod’s Theogony describes a dispute over which portions of the sacrificial animal should go to men and which to the gods.
    — Michelle Orange, Harper's Magazine, 3 Nov. 2023
  • In them, Aztec priests cut beating hearts from the chests of sacrificial victims before throwing them down the steep steps of pyramids.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2024
  • Science in Poland reports that the 3,500-year-old stone chest, which contains a sacrificial goose, was found at Deir el-Bahri in Luxor.
    — Fox News, 13 Mar. 2020
  • But every once in a while, college football’s sacrificial lambs bare their teeth and take a bite out of the standardized script.
    — Tim Sullivan, The Courier-Journal, 19 Sep. 2021
  • So, season four was the sacrificial season for Gabriel’s hair in order to embrace a new look in the next installment.
    — Christy Piña, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Sep. 2024
  • The type of sacrifice and of sacrificial victim depended on the occasion.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2024

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