commandeer
to order or force into active military service.
to seize (private property) for military or other public use: The police officer commandeered a taxi and took off after the getaway car.
to seize arbitrarily.
Origin of commandeer
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use commandeer in a sentence
What better way to bring up a serious issue without commandeering the meal?
A second team from Tripoli arrived in Benghazi after commandeering an airplane and being delayed at the airport.
General: We Didn't Even Try To Save American Lives In Benghazi | Eli Lake | May 1, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTPirates, too, have plagued the waters for the last several years, commandeering freighters at gunpoint and demanding ransom.
Costa Allegra Stranded: Another Cruise From Hell | Barbie Latza Nadeau | February 28, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThe left wants government to take more and spend more, commandeering a larger chunk of the overall economy.
Problem is, it's much less creative at entertaining people than it is at commandeering their accounts.
We have even heard of such things as the commandeering of the beasts of an English traveller for Government service.
The Cradle of Mankind | W.A. WigramIt was made possible by the Council's course in commandeering to its side the business men of the United States.
They were wrangling about the commandeering of gold and the sjamboking—shamboking, you pronounce it—of Johannesburg refugees.
From Capetown to Ladysmith | G. W. SteevensStealing has been abolished in South Africa—it is all commandeering now!
From Aldershot to Pretoria | W. E. SellersThey were undoubtedly the best commandeering agents the Boers ever had.
In the Shadow of Death | P. H. Kritzinger and R. D. McDonald
British Dictionary definitions for commandeer
/ (ˌkɒmənˈdɪə) /
to seize for public or military use
to seize arbitrarily
Origin of commandeer
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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