How to Use derring-do in a Sentence

derring-do

noun
  • Why, deeds of derring-do, of course, or at least a bit of hearty axe-swinging.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2023
  • Spy movies often play up the action, but there’s a lot of paperwork behind the derring-do.
    Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 5 Apr. 2024
  • Expect to see the young stars of tomorrow in all manner of derring-do, from aerial acts to juggling.
    Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Robinson remains a standard of derring-do as a base runner.
    Bob Ryan, BostonGlobe.com, 14 July 2023
  • Each play essential parts in the action, and do their fair share of conniving and derring-do to aid or defeat the grand, evil purposes of the bad guys.
    Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2024
  • The doers here are the bad guys, much like in Scorsese pictures past, but now their impunity isn’t a matter of escapist wish fulfillment and scoundrel-y derring-do.
    Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2023
  • The results include a handful of showdowns—one in the Khan family house, several in outer space—and some derring-do with spacecraft.
    Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 9 Nov. 2023
  • In the end, notes can be merely notions, providing new ways of describing a perfumer’s masterful derring-do.
    Town & Country, 1 May 2023
  • Now married to his own Prince Charming and father to a 10-year-old daughter, Cedric recounts his own exploits and feats of derring-do to his young daughter preparing to follow in his footsteps.
    Ben Croll, Variety, 20 Feb. 2024
  • Pink may be known for her feats of derring-do, but there’s no fearlessness like withstanding the slings and arrows of being a reasonably outspoken public figure.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 15 Feb. 2023
  • There’s real valor, if not derring-do, in their songwriting, which never lands on anything resembling treacle.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 1 Nov. 2023
  • What follows is an overlong concatenation of OK set pieces featuring oodles of predictable globe-hopping derring-do.
    Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 June 2023
  • The very idea that this show, so defined by the electricity of its kitchen, would set nearly the entire second season in a building that very conspicuously doesn’t even have its gas on, is a staggering feat of televisual derring-do.
    Phillip MacIak, The New Republic, 30 June 2023
  • Those updates references – and the series of chases, Rube Goldberg mechanisms, and bits of derring-do they all precipitate – also allowed the filmmaking to push their formal boundaries.
    Ben Croll, Variety, 14 June 2023
  • This last movement, with its not-so-reckless abandon, was the big thrill of the night, Cho quickening his dialogue with the orchestra, intensifying his feats of dynamic derring-do, even applying a bit of barroom swagger here and there.
    Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024
  • Her show documents her derring-do of taking on unusual challenges ranging from training as an astronaut to rehearsing for a Broadway show to learning to becoming a 911 dispatcher.
    Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 27 Aug. 2023
  • Trump’s baseless accusations and his flat-out lies are as essential to his public identity as are his tales of financial derring-do, his coarse language, his prejudices and his listing toward autocracy.
    Robin Givhan, Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2024
  • In 2019, Prigozhin began releasing Hollywood-style movies that celebrate mercenary derring-do.
    Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2023
  • Intercutting talking heads with fantastic scenes of derring-do, Abnett and Lanning make lovable, irascible characters out of heretofore minor figures in the Marvel Universe.
    Joe George, menshealth.com, 6 May 2023
  • Small operators, with far less infrastructure than a utility company and far more derring-do, might experiment more freely and come up with valuable innovations more quickly.
    Ross Koningstein, IEEE Spectrum, 18 Nov. 2014

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