How to Use inoperative in a Sentence

inoperative

adjective

• With the new federal law in place, the state law has become inoperative.
• The accident had rendered the vehicle inoperative.
• The plants will become inoperative in the first half of 2024.
  — William Thornton | [e-mail], al, 7 Aug. 2023
• When there’s a killer on one side and a dead body on the other, the all-sides stance becomes inoperative.
  — T.a. Frank, The Hive, 16 Aug. 2017
• One bathroom has a hole in a wall, inoperative stall doors and shattered floor tiles.
  — Sharon Noguchi, The Mercury News, 12 May 2017
• The rear drive axle may have the incorrect type of brake cam installed, which could result in inoperative rear axle brakes.
  — Detroit Free Press, 21 Aug. 2021
• The family car was inoperative half of the time with plastic garbage bags as back windows.
  — Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY, 30 Jan. 2022
• The driver failed to use a turn signal while changing lanes and a rear license plate light was inoperative, the sheriff’s office said.
  — Kieran Nicholson, The Denver Post, 3 Dec. 2019
• The windshield wiper motor may become inoperative, causing the wipers to fail.
  — Detroit Free Press, 2 Sep. 2022
• If the fuel pump module is inoperative, the engine may not start or can stall while riding, increasing the risk of a crash or injury, the company said.
  — Mike Snider, USA TODAY, 26 Feb. 2024
• In all, 12 of 32 closed-circuit television cameras at the jail were inoperative at the time of Brice’s death, and showers had a metal bar across the entry way on which curtains were attached.
  — ExpressNews.com, 15 Dec. 2020
• The unexpected flood on Aug. 5 revealed the city had 17 inoperative drainage pumps.
  — Tristan Baurick, NOLA.com, 26 Oct. 2017
• Powers had taken his voice away from the project by choice, but then it was taken away from him against his will after a reaction to an over-the-counter drug left his larynx and vocal cords inoperative for eight months.
  — Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 28 Feb. 2023
• One of mine turns to the art in the world’s now shuttered museums: inoperative without the physical presence of attentive viewers.
  — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2020
• The Honda becomes inoperative just after the six-minute mark near Tamiami Trail.
  — Carli Teproff, Charles Rabin, Rebecca Ellis and David Ovalle, miamiherald, 6 June 2018
• How would anyone but Soros' house staff know that the camera guarding the mailbox was inoperative? Exclusive Offer.
  — Garrett M. Graff, Wired, 12 Aug. 2020
• Every home has that one drawer where unknown or inoperative chargers go to become a tangled mess.
  — Kaylei Fear, Better Homes & Gardens, 9 Dec. 2021
• The former police chief also reestablished the department’s K-9 unit which was inoperative for 20 years.
  — Tom Steele, Dallas News, 30 Mar. 2021
• Unfortunately, that whimsy runs in stark contrast to the less appealing elements of the park: the trash, the inoperative fountains, runoff from local farms.
  — Jamie Hale, OregonLive.com, 24 May 2017
• Chiu’s office said the bill would not prevent cities from enacting their own laws to address abandoned, wrecked or inoperative vehicles.
  — Laura J. Nelson, latimes.com, 12 June 2019
• Captain Pearson took this to mean that the cockpit fuel gauges were completely inoperative.
  — Matt Parker, Wired, 23 Jan. 2020
• By December, the InSight team expects the lander to have become inoperative.
  — Julia Musto, Fox News, 18 May 2022
• Roads were clogged all over San Juan because traffic lights were inoperative, and several businesses in busy downtown areas were closed.
  — Washington Post, 18 Apr. 2018
• All twin-engine aircraft can fly with one engine inoperative.
  — John Cox, USA TODAY, 24 June 2018
• The wood is peeling, the leather is cracked, power antenna, air horns, and radio are inoperative, and the power windows work only intermittently.
  — Elana Scherr, Car and Driver, 20 Apr. 2022
• Failure to perform this step will result in an inoperative system and an incomplete repair.
  — Nick Statt, The Verge, 12 Nov. 2018
• The onetime pizza delivery man faced a mandatory decade in prison after pleading guilty to explosives charges on March 22 for mailing 16 inoperative pipe bombs days before the midterm elections last fall.
  — Fox News, 5 Aug. 2019
• But these small and exposed possessions could easily be rendered inoperative in wartime by the U.S. military.
  — Stephen G. Brooks, Foreign Affairs, 18 Apr. 2023
• The selling dealer notes an inoperative horn, wipers, and radio pushbuttons.
  — Joe Lorio, Car and Driver, 26 Aug. 2022
• The backup light switch may corrode and become inoperative, which can result in the backup lights not illuminating and the rearview camera image not displaying when the vehicle is in reverse.
  — Detroit Free Press, 12 Aug. 2022

Last Updated: 23 Sep 2024