How to Use barbed wire in a Sentence

barbed wire

noun
  • The barbed wire along the walls ripped their clothes clean off.
    BostonGlobe.com, 16 Sep. 2021
  • Mud homes line the barbed wire fence at the edge of the main airport in Agadez.
    Carley Petesch, Fox News, 23 Apr. 2018
  • British flags are duct taped to lamp posts wrapped in barbed wire.
    New York Times, 13 July 2021
  • On the roof of one shed were three ancient coils of barbed wire.
    Washington Post, 4 Feb. 2022
  • But first, the barbed wire fence must come down, at least on the northern end of the lake.
    Paul Eisenberg, chicagotribune.com, 27 Mar. 2022
  • To pick up the historic route, follow the old barbed wire fence to a gate near the edge of the canyon.
    Mare Czinar, The Arizona Republic, 8 July 2022
  • Some climbed over barbed wire and cut their way through fences.
    Washington Post, 27 Nov. 2019
  • The fence has several lawyers of barbed wire on the very top of it.
    Brett Clarkson, Sun-Sentinel.com, 18 Oct. 2017
  • In the 1930s chain-link fencing topped with barbed wire went up.
    Matthew Segal, Los Angeles Magazine, 18 June 2018
  • The walls don’t sag, and the property is not ringed by barbed wire.
    Don Stacom, courant.com, 13 Aug. 2019
  • The rich live behind high walls topped with barbed wire.
    Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2021
  • Young added that the inmates used bedsheets to climb over the barbed wire fence.
    Fox News, 22 May 2018
  • And how long did that little twig and barbed wire fence run for?
    Fox News, 1 July 2018
  • With hooks and a long rope, the activists pulled at parts of the barbed wire adjacent to the fence.
    Fares Akram, The Christian Science Monitor, 27 Apr. 2018
  • People can get used to anything—the sea, the southern stars, love, a bunk in a prison, the barbed wire of the camps.
    Aaron Lake Smith, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
  • Above a fence topped with barbed wire, the top of a drilling rig was visible.
    Ian James, The Arizona Republic, 5 Feb. 2022
  • The mound loomed next to me, well preserved behind a barbed wire fence.
    Peter Kujawinski, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2017
  • Kill it with fire, salt the earth, and cover over with concrete and barbed wire.
    Brian Moylan, Vulture, 13 Sep. 2021
  • Concrete barriers and barbed wire line the beach along the Sea of Azov.
    New York Times, 9 Feb. 2022
  • The dusty camp was ringed with barbed wire and guarded by armed watchmen.
    Amy Qin Ruth Fremson, New York Times, 10 Nov. 2022
  • The Saturn hit a dirt ravine and barbed wire fence then rolled, Garrow said.
    Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Feb. 2022
  • About 10 years ago David Adam scratched his finger on a barbed wire fence.
    Simon Makin, Scientific American, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Today, across the mines and barbed wire, that light shines brighter than ever.
    Drew Broach, NOLA.com, 18 Oct. 2017
  • There are fences, barbed wire around it, armed guards with guns for children.
    Bill Glauber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10 July 2019
  • Don’t be fooled by the barbed wire necklaces and stacks of nose rings — Lizz Jardim is a ray of sunshine.
    Sarah Spellings and Diana Tsui, The Cut, 19 Jan. 2018
  • Tacks aren't as bad as other things like light tubes, barbed wire.
    Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 25 Aug. 2020
  • The vehicle was parked in a secured area fenced with three rows of barbed wire on top of the fence.
    Erik S. Hanley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5 May 2021
  • Our craft found an opening blown in the steel and barbed wire defenses at the beach and ploughed through.
    Washington Post, 4 June 2019
  • At one well, tangles of barbed wire fence had fallen over near a rusting pump jack that was erected in the 1980s.
    Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 Dec. 2022
  • Fan and his brother eventually ended up in Sihanoukville in a compound surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
    Cezary Podkul, ProPublica, 13 Sep. 2022

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