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
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The Houthis, who control the north, claim the situation is far better in their fief.
—The Economist, 4 June 2020
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Labour, which used to regard Scotland as a fief, looks like being left with a single seat.
—The Economist, 13 Dec. 2019
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Since then Hamas has run the coastal strip as a separate fief, with its own civil servants and police.
—The Economist, 5 Oct. 2017
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Unlike some other cities going to the polls, Birmingham is not a Labour fief.
—The Economist, 26 Apr. 2018
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Those promises mean little if the funds are run like personal fiefs.
—The Economist, 14 June 2019
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Kadyrov, who rules Chechnya as a fief, would be unacceptable to the elite.
—Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2022
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Perhaps renting is a prudent approach if the city must have five pension fiefs.
—New York Times, 6 June 2018
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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
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One episode introduces Kirkwood Chocolate, the Tyler Perry-like overlord of an inescapable fief of schlock.
—James Poniewozik, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2022
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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
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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
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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
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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
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In his own fief, the executive had become accustomed to torrid growth.
—Dana Mattioli, WSJ, 16 June 2022
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The uprising shattered Libya into a collection of fiefs ruled by militias.
—The Economist, 5 Apr. 2018
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Little wonder, then, that Facebook is bringing a dating service to the richest denizens of its internet fief.
—The Economist, 12 Sep. 2019
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fief.' 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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