How to Use coarsen in a Sentence

coarsen

verb

• He was coarsened by his time in prison.
• Her hands were coarsened by years of hard work.
• The book describes how popular culture has coarsened in recent decades.
• His mother, Hui-fang, was a wheat farmer, her skin coarsened by days working in Henan’s broiling summer sun.
  — Bill Powell, Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2014
• Trump and the hard right have been accused, fairly, of coarsening the tone of politics in America.
  — Jeff Darcy, cleveland.com, 4 June 2017
• The idea had not yet been banished that—as proposed in Dr. Clarke’s 1873 book—education itself could coarsen and sicken American girls.
  — David Baron, The Atlantic, 9 Aug. 2017
• In a strange way, Trump, who has coarsened political rhetoric, has actually raised the bar of civility for the media.
  — Callum Borchers, Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2018
• Some residents questioned whether looking at pretty pictures and monuments amid such ugliness improved or coarsened the soul.
  — Justin T. Clark, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Apr. 2018
• Hasn’t much of what passes for professional athletics today coarsened enough to satisfy our basest instincts?
  — WSJ, 24 June 2018
• There’s an argument that coarsened culture requires even more gruesome photographs to rouse our numbed humanity.
  — Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2018
• In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting outside Washington at a congressional baseball practice, a number of lawmakers have voiced concern about coarsening political rhetoric -- in the media, at town halls and in other settings.
  — Tori Richards, Fox News, 15 June 2017
• Religious conservatives accused him of coarsening culture and appealing to people’s baser instincts purely for profit.
  — Lukas I. Alpert, WSJ, 28 Sep. 2017
• Trump has inarguably coarsened political discourse and is uniquely willing to conduct himself in political wars in a way that most political figures would view as demeaning to his office as president or party nominee.
  — Stephen Collinson, CNN, 12 Dec. 2017
• In the process, though, the novel diminishes her vivid voice and personality, softens her views, and minimizes some essential relationships while sentimentalizing or coarsening others.
  — Sarah Stone, San Francisco Chronicle, 31 May 2018

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024