How to Use fractious in a Sentence

fractious

adjective
  • The fractious crowd grew violent.
  • Odysseus knows how to massage an ego; that was his role in the fractious Greek camp.
    — Judith Thurman, The New Yorker, 11 Sep. 2023
  • But those tools aren’t as easy to deploy in a fractious state.
    — Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 26 Sep. 2020
  • Given the fractious history of the long dormant band, that may be for the best.
    — George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Sep. 2023
  • And this is a movement, like any movement, that can be kind of fractious . . .
    — Michelle Boorstein and Justine McDaniel, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Jan. 2023
  • The hope for this fractious family comes in the form of young Bud, played by the adorable, precocious 10-year-old Traum.
    — Mitchel Benson, sacbee, 30 Mar. 2018
  • In an often fractious field, that is about as close to a consensus view as can be found.
    — The Economist, 15 Aug. 2020
  • As with so much else in these fractious times, the culprit was social media.
    — Shoaib Daniyal, Quartz India, 4 June 2019
  • Such is the fractious nature of this city and its inexhaustible pool of umbrage.
    — Kyle Smith, National Review, 13 July 2019
  • The current Speaker election process has been the most fractious in nearly 175 years.
    — Michael Peregrine, Forbes, 6 Jan. 2023
  • The real competition is off the pitch: in the Middle East, even watching the game is fractious.
    — The Economist, 21 June 2018
  • Leaders will discuss these ideas at what is sure to be a fractious EU summit next week.
    — The Economist, 21 June 2018
  • Elections in Ivory Coast are fractious times for investors.
    — Baudelaire Mieu, Bloomberg.com, 29 Aug. 2020
  • How will the deal play out in Israel’s fractious politics?
    — Asher Kaufman, The Conversation, 16 Jan. 2025
  • Sam is not the silent type, and the fractious love among women — including Sam’s grande-dame mother (Celia Imrie) — is the show’s core.
    — New York Times, 16 June 2021
  • Creating a sense of unity among the fractious Arab states will be hard, and there are other leaders in the Arab world to challenge the young Prince.
    — James Stavridis, Time, 22 Mar. 2018
  • Our history as a country has been bloody and fractious.
    — Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, 20 Jan. 2021
  • One thing that remains the same, however, is the fractious nature of Trump’s coalition.
    — Aaron Coy Moulton / Made By History, TIME, 16 Jan. 2025
  • The case, which the court will consider in the nine-month term that starts in October, will put the justices in the middle of one of the country’s most fractious debates.
    — Greg Stohr, Fortune, 26 Apr. 2021
  • While the first season was a slow burn, dwelling on the fractious politics of the era, the second ratchets up the pace considerably.
    — Matt Kamen, WIRED, 30 Nov. 2024
  • The 27-year-old’s relationship with the national team has been a bit fractious over the years, but his talents have long been well-known.
    — Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com, 23 Mar. 2018
  • Those higher up the totem pole may become fractious to stop colleagues from advancing up the ranks.
    — Satyen Sangani, Forbes, 3 Aug. 2022
  • To that could, and perhaps should, be added fractured and fractious, disruptive.
    — New York Times, 9 Sep. 2021
  • Earlier, the board sat through more than four hours of fierce, fractious public comment.
    — Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, 30 June 2020
  • Homelessness has perhaps been the most fractious issue between Aragón and the board.
    — Dominic Fracassa, SFChronicle.com, 14 June 2020
  • That draining, fractious battle two decades ago demonstrates some of the risks for campaigns to oust Trump today.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 16 Apr. 2018
  • No debate is more fractious than that surrounding distance, which has for years rumbled along like a freight train in the night.
    — Eamon Lynch, Golfweek, 4 Feb. 2020
  • Founded in the 1980s, Hamas has always been fractious, split between the rough men of Qassam and the more pragmatic politburo.
    — The Economist, 26 May 2018
  • Johnson has had to navigate small margins in a fractious conference over the last two years.
    — Riley Beggin, USA TODAY, 3 Jan. 2025
  • In the video, Henderson argues that these out-of-touch views are all around us, widening our class divide and fueling our fractious politics.
    — The Learning Network, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2025

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