How to Use torpor in a Sentence

torpor

noun
Definition of torpornext
Synonyms for torpornext
  • The news aroused him from his torpor.
  • Though crucial for the fleet fliers’ way of life, deep torpor comes with trade-offs.
    — Carolyn Wilke, Scientific American, 1 May 2022
  • The three species studied spent five to 35 percent of the night in shallow torpor.
    — Carolyn Wilke, Scientific American, 1 May 2022
  • The bowl, crowned with a rubbery fried egg, quickly slips into a brown, salty torpor.
    — Patricia Escárcega, latimes.com, 19 June 2019
  • Tchouámeni’s goal seemed to lull his team into a torpor.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 10 Dec. 2022
  • U.S. stocks have shaken off the torpor that marked much of January.
    — Richard Barley, WSJ, 16 Feb. 2017
  • The butterflies were shipped in a state of torpor or inactivity, thanks to a cold pack in the box.
    — Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 3 Nov. 2022
  • Out of nowhere, the free world once again stands for something, and is even showing signs of shaking itself out of its decades-long torpor.
    — Tom McTague, The Atlantic, 9 May 2022
  • That Muzak version of the 2001 theme played on repeat, limping through the torpor of the humidity.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, WIRED, 2 Mar. 2016
  • Our glacial springs burble with the torpor and consistency of a melting pint of Phish Food ice cream.
    — Emma Brewer, The New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2023
  • Some only entered torpor only briefly, and these lost up to 15 percent of their body weight overnight.
    — Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Sep. 2020
  • In addition, humans in torpor would need a lot less to keep going.
    — Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics, 5 May 2023
  • This kind of hibernation, also known as torpor, is more than just a long sleep.
    — Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics, 5 May 2023
  • His first came in 1993, during the summer, and his latest draws on that season’s sunlit torpor.
    — Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker, 1 July 2019
  • Chen agrees that pigs probably are the next rung on the ladder to payoffs in torpor induction.
    — Emily Willingham, Scientific American, 5 June 2023
  • This lack of shivering was sort of an overnight torpor accomplished by the Bushmen, LeBlanc wrote.
    — Ned Rozell, Anchorage Daily News, 11 Oct. 2020
  • Through decades of economic torpor, the country’s chief export was beef.
    — Cullen Murphy, The Atlantic, 14 Mar. 2022
  • The result pierced the torpor and discontent of the last year and put an end to all those whiny questions about whether fashion really matters any more.
    — New York Times, 10 July 2021
  • The opening piece was hectic and clangorous; after that, torpor set in.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 9 Jan. 2017
  • Or how Broadway pizazz can fill the screen with carnival fervor when Daniela rouses the block from its torpor during a heat wave and a blackout.
    — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 10 June 2021
  • The study showed that rather than try to keep their temperature high overnight, the birds dropped into a state of torpor, where their heart rates and body temperature dropped.
    — Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Sep. 2020
  • So, too, here: When the game ended, the explosion of joy from the French players, and their small squadron of fans, felt somehow out of place, out of context, with the torpor that had descended.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 11 July 2018
  • The infection causes the bats to wake up from their energy-saving torpor.
    — Winifred Frick, The Conversation, 27 Jan. 2020
  • Next, the researchers compared these to the areas lit up in mice that weren't experiencing torpor.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 14 June 2020
  • That doesn’t necessarily augur for a lot of fun, or anything close to the androgenic torpor of his and his band’s youth.
    — A.d. Amorosi, Variety, 14 Apr. 2023
  • Then there’s Pandora, Nathalie’s indoor cat, a feline with a long-sitting gift for torpor.
    — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 1 Dec. 2016
  • Torpor is less intense than hibernation and Koch said bears can even wake up and leave the den before returning to the state of torpor again.
    — Tess Williams, Anchorage Daily News, 9 Feb. 2021
  • The mice cooled off by shifting body heat into their tails—a classic sign of torpor, Bruekelen notes—and their heart rates and metabolisms slowed.
    — Byemily Underwood, science.org, 25 May 2023
  • The agony of midnight massacre, the frenzy of the ship’s dungeon, the living death of the middle-passage, the wails of separation, the dismal torpor of hopeless servitude—are these found only in the piracy of the slave trade?
    — Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2024
  • What Is Torpor? While bears are famous for going dormant during icy times, what most species do is called torpor and not hibernation.
    — Sofia Quaglia, Discover Magazine, 6 Dec. 2023

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