How to Use ramrod in a Sentence

ramrod

noun
  • Some walk or point (the men), others are ramrod still (the women).
    Jason Farago, New York Times, 6 June 2018
  • Yet the most striking thing about Owens is his hair — which is long, jet-black and ramrod-straight.
    Alexander Fury, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2017
  • Stankey stands at 6-foot-5, and has a booming voice and the ramrod-straight posture of a military leader.
    Variety, 9 Apr. 2022
  • DeRuntz poured gunpowder down the shaft, stuffing it down with a metal ramrod.
    Carole Carlson, chicagotribune.com, 28 Sep. 2021
  • This was his last season as ramrod of Little Dease Ventures.
    oregonlive, 12 Oct. 2019
  • Tall, slender and with ramrod straight posture, Wright takes the audience along with her on her journey.
    Joanne Engelhardt, The Mercury News, 18 July 2019
  • There are an amazing number of huge white pines, all single trunks growing ramrod-straight.
    Peter Marteka, courant.com, 5 May 2018
  • The woman on his hip stood ramrod straight, proudly displaying a navy blue InfoWars T-shirt.
    Zach Schermele, Teen Vogue, 18 July 2018
  • The greatest number milled about in the sun along the Long Walk, a 2.5-mile ramrod straight avenue leading directly to a gate at Windsor Castle.
    Caity Weaver, New York Times, 24 May 2018
  • Members of a Marine honor guard trailed behind, clad in navy blue uniforms, white caps and white gloves, marching ramrod-straight to muffled drums and the clip-clop of horse hoofs.
    Ian Shapira, Washington Post, 26 Nov. 2019
  • Each morning, Chauvin stood ramrod straight to welcome Cahill into the courtroom.
    Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2021
  • To his admirers, Gen. Singlaub was the consummate warrior — a brawny, ramrod-straight man of action with the wounds and decorations to prove the truth of the lore that surrounded him.
    Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2022
  • The troops stood, ramrod straight, in their Army and Marine Corps dress uniforms, in silence, each man and woman giving a slow salute with a white-gloved hand as the name of a fallen service member was called.
    David Anderson, baltimoresun.com, 8 Oct. 2019
  • In the klatch of voters watching from their lawn chairs, a woman in a blue windbreaker, maybe in her late twenties, sat ramrod straight, the phone tightly gripped in her hand forgotten for the moment.
    Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 4 Oct. 2019
  • Seeing Lisa standing ramrod straight with a loaded Glock in her hand was as startling to me as seeing her in front of an orchestra waving a baton.
    David Sedaris, The New Yorker, 17 Mar. 2018
  • Fred Darling — whose ramrod-straight military persona faced a constant joyful barrage at home — put his foot down on snakes.
    Washington Post, 21 Sep. 2020
  • DeAngelo stood stone-faced and ramrod straight in a courtroom cage, never looking at the courtroom packed with survivors, relatives, reporters and at least a half-dozen armed bailiffs.
    Fox News, 23 Aug. 2018
  • When not feeding, many inchworms disguise themselves like leaf stems or twigs by standing on their hind legs ramrod-straight and freezing like a living statue performer.
    Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 21 July 2022
  • Her posture gradually goes from ramrod-straight to slightly slumped.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 7 Apr. 2022
  • Other key features include a Quake Claw sling, reversible cocking spur, and a solid aluminum PalmSaver ramrod.
    Brad Fitzpatrick, Outdoor Life, 26 Feb. 2019
  • Cher’s contemplative expression and ramrod sedentary posture gave her the aura of a Byzantine icon.
    New York Times, 9 Dec. 2020
  • Naird’s situation is of a man with ramrod-straight posture prostrated and disarrayed at many odd angles.
    Troy Patterson, The New Yorker, 28 May 2020
  • It is adorned with three generic Confederate soldiers holding ramrods, rifles and swords.
    Chico Harlan, Washington Post, 20 Aug. 2017
  • More significantly, they are loaded through the barrel like an old Revolutionary War musket, with the bullet tamped down with a ramrod.
    Oliver Staley, Quartz, 23 Oct. 2020
  • An aloof, ramrod-straight Chun during his mid-1990s trial defended the coup as necessary to save the nation from a political crisis and denied sending troops into Gwangju.
    Reuters, CNN, 23 Nov. 2021
  • Tall, graying and standing ramrod straight, Franken's approach is understated.
    Thomas Beaumont, ajc, 14 May 2022
  • Its protagonist, played with ramrod conviction by Gary Cooper, is a dogmatic modern architect, Howard Roark, who would prefer to starve than to build in the classical style.
    Mark Lamster, Dallas News, 7 Feb. 2020
  • Galli sat ramrod straight, unruffled, scrolling and replying.
    Alexandra Marshall, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2017
  • Lia Grimanis, the founder of Up with Women, an organization that helps recently homeless women and families, regards the ramrod-straight with awe.
    Patricia Marx, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2021
  • Just about anything the IDF buys will be used in action sooner or later—probably sooner—a reality that Tzuker, a ramrod-straight former infantry officer, understood better than most.
    Matthew Campbell, Bloomberg.com, 14 June 2018

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