How to Use detestable in a Sentence

detestable

adjective
  • He is a detestable villain.
  • And how a beloved author could have been a detestable human.
    Jessica Ferri, Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2023
  • While a free trip to Hawaii sounds great, there's just one problem: her plus one is her detestable new brother-in-law, Ethan.
    Elizabeth Berry, Woman's Day, 9 May 2022
  • Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and mark the foreheads of those who sigh and groan because of all the detestable practices that have been conducted in it.
    Ysolt Usigan, Woman's Day, 25 Jan. 2023
  • And fans in other markets don’t see him as detestable or anything like that.
    Albert Breer, SI.com, 29 Aug. 2019
  • But here in the U.S., chili is considered delicious and far from detestable.
    Eric Velasco, AL.com, 5 Jan. 2018
  • Played by anyone else, Felix would be a detestable, sexist cad.
    Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 2 Oct. 2020
  • The reality has been tested by many millions, and found to be detestable.
    George Melloan, WSJ, 4 Feb. 2020
  • Those who find the presence of Fox News on their cable menus detestable should let their cable operators know it.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2023
  • That partially explains the expansion of the detestable chorus from the school itself to its sponsor.
    Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Sep. 2022
  • Even the wave, seen recently at both Oracle Park and the Coliseum, isn’t as detestable as usual.
    John Shea, San Francisco Chronicle, 10 July 2021
  • Ferguson’s Rose the Hat is one of the best movie villains in recent memory, by turns arousing and detestable, but always riveting.
    John Wenzel, The Know, 8 Nov. 2019
  • Some of it has been riddled with detestable ideology -- some arguable, some blatant -- and others have been praise-worthy pieces of progress embedded in song.
    Trish Bendix, Billboard, 20 Sep. 2017
  • Keely Vasquez, who plays the thanklessly detestable Gussie Carnegie (the name says it all), delivers far more than this object of Sondheim hatred usually delivers.
    Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 31 Jan. 2018
  • There is a captivating oddity to how this tastily detestable character speaks, as if her frontal lobe were programmed with grammar and usage flash cards.
    Troy Patterson, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2019
  • The openness that allows art to be remixed toward detestable political ends is also what allows something hateful to be redeemed.
    Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2020
  • But Feito, an obviously talented writer, gives us a Mrs. March who is detestable, a person who revels in other people’s failures.
    Washington Post, 20 Aug. 2021
  • What is detestable, though, is McAuliffe’s disdain for lower-income families who want that same level of accountability from their children’s public schools.
    Rory Cooper, National Review, 1 Oct. 2021
  • Campy embraces the detestable with affection, as an actual aesthetic.
    Marie Southard Ospina, refinery29.com, 26 Jan. 2021
  • Smith said because child abuse crimes are so detestable, some defendants will never take responsibility.
    Deanna Boyd, star-telegram.com, 31 May 2017
  • First, Pacific Gas & Electric, which may be the most detested, and detestable, corporation in California, if not in the observable solar system.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2019
  • An unequivocal rejection of this detestable president will send him packing.
    John R. MacArthur, Harper’s Magazine , 7 Dec. 2021
  • West’s sole attribution to the Jewish people of a widespread conspiracy to control society is a detestable lie offensive not only to those of the Jewish faith but also to this diverse, power-hungry cabal.
    Skyler Higley, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2022
  • When the debaters attempted to move to a private broadcasting location, the protestors—many in masks, a common tactic also used by the detestable Ku Klux Klan—pulled fire alarms, surrounded the speakers, and began physically assaulting them.
    Time, 11 Sep. 2017
  • Some of Reed’s characters are detestable, their behavior inexcusable.
    Greg Kot, chicagotribune.com, 1 Oct. 2019

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