death squad
noun
: any of various extremist groups whose members kill suspected political adversaries and criminals
Examples of death squad in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
But the 79-year-old Duterte later said gangsters — not police officers — made up his death squad, adding to the ambiguity surrounding the squad’s operations.
—
Reuters, NBC News, 29 Oct. 2024
In 2009, a special supreme court tribunal sentenced him to 25 years in prison for authorizing the operation of a death squad responsible for killing civilians.
—Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN, 12 Sep. 2024
And yet Chiquita’s employment of death squads to protect its interests into the 2000s raises an uncomfortable question for the protagonists of 21st-century globalization, hunting around the Global South in pursuit of natural resources or other opportunities to exploit.
—Eduardo Porter, Washington Post, 1 July 2024
Right-wing death squads known as autodefensas formed an alliance with drug cartels—offering the cartel members protection in return for a cut of their profits—and declared war on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist guerrilla group, and its sympathizers.
—Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for death squad 
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Reuters, NBC News, 29 Oct. 2024
In 2009, a special supreme court tribunal sentenced him to 25 years in prison for authorizing the operation of a death squad responsible for killing civilians.
—Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN, 12 Sep. 2024
And yet Chiquita’s employment of death squads to protect its interests into the 2000s raises an uncomfortable question for the protagonists of 21st-century globalization, hunting around the Global South in pursuit of natural resources or other opportunities to exploit.
—Eduardo Porter, Washington Post, 1 July 2024
Right-wing death squads known as autodefensas formed an alliance with drug cartels—offering the cartel members protection in return for a cut of their profits—and declared war on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist guerrilla group, and its sympathizers.
—Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for death squad
Dictionary Entries Near death squad
Cite this Entry
“Death squad.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/death%20squad. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share