How to Use feral in a Sentence

feral

adjective
  • They led a feral existence.
  • And the girl from the ice, a feral-seeming child who screams and flees at the very sight of Val.
    — Tom Nolan, WSJ, 11 Mar. 2022
  • It’s the sort of wine that can feel feral and uncouth — in a good way.
    — Esther Mobley, SFChronicle.com, 16 Dec. 2020
  • Most of the time, having feral swine around is a bad thing for hunters.
    — Will Brantley, Field & Stream, 28 Sep. 2023
  • Then at the center of the room, put a cardboard box with 40 feral cats.
    — Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2022
  • The Plastics and their tactics are meant to be as feral as the African plains.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 10 Jan. 2024
  • Is this a quiet, gray street, my street, or the set of a feral opera?
    — James Parker, The Atlantic, 12 Sep. 2021
  • The feral cats had not only stuck around but brought a friend to stay with them.
    — Ian Morris, The New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2020
  • As the game wore on, as the tension grew, the noise became more fevered, more feral.
    — New York Times, 28 June 2019
  • No one knows for sure how many feral cats there are in New York City.
    — Seyward Darby, Longreads, 5 July 2023
  • This makes feral pigs a favorite quarry among hunters in that part of the world.
    — Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 7 Nov. 2023
  • The increase in seeds also means more rats, stoats and feral cats -- all of which pose risks to the bird.
    — Leah Asmelash and Brian Ries, CNN, 19 July 2019
  • These include barn and feral cats, indoor cats, and big cats in zoos and in the wild.
    — CBS News, 1 Jan. 2025
  • The result was that feral pigs moved in and destroyed lawns.
    — Cheryl Conley, Houston Chronicle, 10 July 2018
  • Most of these cats, the researchers suggest, were feral—but not all of them.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Mar. 2020
  • So when the feral cats of Rio de Janeiro began to fall ill, no one at first thought to ask why.
    — Maryn McKenna, Scientific American, 19 May 2021
  • Scrim was squeezed into a trap that had been set for feral cats.
    — Rick Rojas, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2025
  • About a decade ago, the feral swine population in the state grew to more than 3,000.
    — Kyle Spurr, The Seattle Times, 30 July 2018
  • And lots of them were feral cats that want nothing to do with people.
    — Chris Perkins, sun-sentinel.com, 15 Sep. 2021
  • Both stories take a Lord of the Flies approach to feral instincts that emerge in the wilderness.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 7 Mar. 2023
  • Hits were the javelina (a not very attractive feral pig), bighorn sheep and the gray fox.
    — Joe Drape, New York Times, 12 June 2018
  • The quick clip shows an angry and feral Xenomorph with dark sharp teeth and lips dripping with drool.
    — Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2024
  • That glitzy, feral charisma bomb is still a part of who Kesha is.
    — Amy Rose Spiegel, SELF, 20 June 2023
  • The moment the sun dipped below the ridge, the assembly let out a feral chorus of yips and howls.
    — New York Times, 20 July 2022
  • The county does not pick up stray or feral cats but will accept them for a $96 fee each.
    — Angela Forburger, azcentral, 5 July 2018
  • San Jose leaders have nixed a plan to kill feral pigs with bows and arrows.
    — Julia Wick, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2020
  • Stray or feral cats who spend their lives outdoors are plagued by threats.
    — Laura L. Davis, USA TODAY, 8 June 2023
  • Often, the only way to deal with packs of feral dogs that may pose a threat to people is to shoot them, Reynolds said.
    — Annie Berman, Anchorage Daily News, 27 Nov. 2022
  • What about feral reactions from fans at the stage door?
    — Kate Lloyd, Vogue, 20 Feb. 2025
  • What to Listen For: The sound of a small waterfall (the Epic route passes by an oasis) and the neigh of feral donkeys that live within the park.
    — Graham Averill, Outside Online, 4 Mar. 2025

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