How to Use fief in a Sentence

fief

noun

• At the moment, 54 trustees are spread across these fiefs.
  — New York Times, 17 May 2018
• The Houthis, who control the north, claim the situation is far better in their fief.
  — The Economist, 4 June 2020
• Labour, which used to regard Scotland as a fief, looks like being left with a single seat.
  — The Economist, 13 Dec. 2019
• Since then Hamas has run the coastal strip as a separate fief, with its own civil servants and police.
  — The Economist, 5 Oct. 2017
• Unlike some other cities going to the polls, Birmingham is not a Labour fief.
  — The Economist, 26 Apr. 2018
• Those promises mean little if the funds are run like personal fiefs.
  — The Economist, 14 June 2019
• Kadyrov, who rules Chechnya as a fief, would be unacceptable to the elite.
  — Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2022
• Perhaps renting is a prudent approach if the city must have five pension fiefs.
  — New York Times, 6 June 2018
• Paul is the heir to House Atreides, whose fief is the oceanic planet of Caladan, a stony, rainy, tumultuous world, limited in its purview and power.
  — K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 2021
• One episode introduces Kirkwood Chocolate, the Tyler Perry-like overlord of an inescapable fief of schlock.
  — James Poniewozik, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2022
• Since the death of Col. Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, warring factions have carved Libya into fiefs and fought over its oil fields, leaving the economy in tatters.
  — Benoit Faucon, WSJ, 17 Sep. 2017
• Their claim is based on possession of a fief—a right granted by a feudal overlord in exchange for allegiance or services.
  — The Economist, 27 Mar. 2021
• Mawlawi Ansari, 36, a burly, bearded cleric, has carved out his own fief in a conservative district of Herat, a western Afghanistan city renowned for art and culture.
  — David Zucchino, New York Times, 22 Oct. 2020
• For years, Mamic ran the country’s soccer program as his own personal fief; in June, he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for embezzlement and tax fraud.
  — Rory Smith, New York Times, 10 July 2018
• In his own fief, the executive had become accustomed to torrid growth.
  — Dana Mattioli, WSJ, 16 June 2022
• The uprising shattered Libya into a collection of fiefs ruled by militias.
  — The Economist, 5 Apr. 2018
• Little wonder, then, that Facebook is bringing a dating service to the richest denizens of its internet fief.
  — The Economist, 12 Sep. 2019
• Ms Goldberg may have come to feel that the position carried too much of a managerial burden, but too little power to rule her fief.
  — The Economist, 13 Feb. 2020
• But for nearly a half-century, the building and society have been the fief of an eminent physician named Dr. Kevin M. Cahill, his family and his friends.
  — Dan Barry, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2021
• For seven centuries its Kurds had their own more or less independent fief, known as Ardalan, nestling in the mountains between the Ottoman and Persian empires.
  — The Economist, 30 Sep. 2017
• On a practical level, the Border Patrol’s hubs along the Mexican border, known as sectors, operate in some ways as fiefs.
  — New York Times, 15 Sep. 2019
• By then, Aldi Süd was selling 400 items per store in its Southern German fief, its inventories arranged on wooden pallets on the floor.
  — Zeke Turner, WSJ, 21 Sep. 2017
• As the Tatmadaw began loosening control over the economy, engaging in a fire sale of assets that had once been the military’s fief, that elite class of the well-connected swooped in to profit.
  — New York Times, 24 Dec. 2021
• For years, top Time Warner Inc. executives talked about putting an end to the fiefs inside the entertainment conglomerate.
  — Benjamin Mullin, WSJ, 8 Mar. 2019
• In corralling rival agencies into one holding company, WPP has allowed the agencies to operate as fiefs for years.
  — Nick Kostov, WSJ, 13 June 2018
• This sleight of hand gave Hoover’s F.B.I. its peculiar character, at once a respected investigative body and a personal fief.
  — Beverly Gage, New York Times, 23 May 2017
• Lulled by glamour and success, Real Madrid has allowed itself to be transformed into the personal fief of its president, Florentino Pérez.
  — New York Times, 9 Apr. 2021
• All that time, Putin allowed the feud between the two fiefs to fester without much intervention, something analysts correctly predicted to be a ticking bomb.
  — Mary Ilyushina, Anchorage Daily News, 26 June 2023
• What emerged was a picture of a nightmarish constellation of dungeonlike prisons, each its own fief yet also part of a greater coordinated whole.
  — New York Times, 25 Jan. 2022
• Since gaining power in the Republika Srpska, Dodik, according to his critics, has turned the entity into a personal fief.
  — New York Times, 14 June 2022

Last Updated: 17 Jul 2024