How to Use Faustian in a Sentence

Faustian

adjective
  • From the start, translation has been something of a Faustian bargain.
    — Max Norman, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2024
  • But critics warn that captive breeding is a Faustian bargain.
    — Tribune News Service, oregonlive, 29 Aug. 2021
  • The Faustian tale is one of those myths that allow a culture to project its anxieties and desires.
    — James Wood, The New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2024
  • There was some strange fatal connection, some Faustian deal, between them.
    — Literary Hub, 2 Oct. 2025
  • But in the Faustian bargain that comes with every new technology, evil is winning in this case.
    — Barth Keck, Hartford Courant, 16 Feb. 2024
  • What felt like a Cinderella story at the start is exposed as a Faustian bargain with a sable coat thrown in.
    — Lily Burana, Rolling Stone, 4 Nov. 2024
  • Helen, on the other hand, has blossomed from dowdy to dazzling, and is now a best-selling author bent on revenge and wooing back Ernest. Desperate, Madeline finds a potion endowing her with eternal youth — but with a few Faustian caveats.
    — Frank Rizzo, Variety, 22 Nov. 2024
  • Harvesting more of our energy from sunlight and wind, as crucial as that is, entails its own Faustian bargain.
    — Vince Beiser, WIRED, 30 Nov. 2024
  • In view of his Christmas messages of fear and hate, have these same Christians made a Faustian bargain, a deal with the devil?
    — Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 9 Jan. 2024
  • The big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical put a Faustian spin on diamond high jinks.
    — Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 30 Mar. 2023
  • Now the party leaders, who one by one have made a Faustian deal with the man in the pink castle, are doing his dirty work — helping Trump wreak vengeance.
    — Frida Ghitis, CNN, 14 May 2021
  • At the same time, their work implies a Faustian allure to keto, carnivory, and other protein-heavy regimens.
    — Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2023
  • There was no Faustian pact connected with my vow, no expectations from godly elements.
    — Patti Smith, New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2025
  • The Casaubon of the novel was cruel, despotic, and maddened by hubris, in the Faustian sense of having sold his soul for power and knowledge.
    — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 17 Nov. 2025
  • Two camps have emerged, one that has welcomed the resources, reach and riches, the other fearful of a Faustian bargain with the powerful platforms.
    — Katie Kilkenny, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Sep. 2022
  • He’s made a Faustian bargain with the devil’s representative.
    — Dave Lieber, Dallas News, 8 July 2021
  • The story, published by Wilde in 1890, follows a man who makes a Faustian bargain to sell his soul for youth and beauty.
    — Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 2 Oct. 2024
  • Travis Scott is emblematic of the Faustian bargain one makes when weaving themselves and their art too deeply with capitalism.
    — Hazlitt, 23 Aug. 2023
  • Continuing claims about a Faustian bargain, meanwhile, kept Haiti isolated from its neighbors.
    — Matthew Brown, Washington Post, 24 Mar. 2024
  • Local politicians eagerly joined this Faustian bargain with developers.
    — WSJ, 1 July 2023
  • There is the hiring and firing of private caregivers, some good, some not, the discovery that one is stealing and the Faustian decision to keep her on because Tillman’s mother loves her.
    — Elissa Altman, BostonGlobe.com, 29 July 2022
  • The Faustian fourth installment of Knausgaard’s Morning Star cycle is worth the perseverance.
    — Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture, 12 Jan. 2026
  • For fledgling photographer Kristian Pederson, the antidote to this schism is a cosmic dose—a Faustian dose—of self-confidence.
    — Literary Hub, 14 Jan. 2026
  • This circle was spinning viciously not just in New York but throughout the country at regional theaters, which were cutting their own Faustian bargains with Broadway.
    — Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2021
  • This Faustian bargain is the equivalent of taxpayers picking up the tab for up to 74 cents of every dollar a donor deems charitable, while the other 26 cents often remain dormant.
    — Kat Taylor, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2021
  • Mephistopheles, that shape-shifting creature who trades in illusion and Faustian contracts, is a powerful symbol of both modernity and the wicked concessions individuals are willing to make for power.
    — TIME, 28 Oct. 2023
  • This 900-page Faustian pact between six young students and an eldritch dragon combines high fantasy, blockbuster action, espionage, politics, and a persistent voltage of romance.
    — Neil McRobert, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2025
  • The city’s pension system was in bad shape because years earlier previous mayors, council members and union officials struck a Faustian bargain to increase retirement benefits while reducing payments into the system.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Feb. 2022
  • The movie, which premiered in the midnights section of the Toronto International Film Festival, follows a hopeless romantic who makes a Faustian bargain to win his crush’s heart.
    — Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 14 Oct. 2025
  • The film’s premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival kicked off a parade of red carpet appearances that paid homage to her on-screen character, an aging actress who makes a Faustian bargain.
    — Kristen Tauer, Footwear News, 9 Jan. 2026

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