How to Use purr in a Sentence

purr

1 of 2 noun
  • This person was less than purr-fect.
    — Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 4 Dec. 2025
  • On most days, the surf is loud enough to mask the steady purr of cars.
    — Jeffrey Marlow, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2026
  • Lay your thumb on the maple lid, and the purr turns into a whine.
    — M.d. Johnson, Field & Stream, 7 Feb. 2023
  • But her whiskers are forward, her coat is shiny, and her purr is loud.
    — Bethany Brookshire, The Atlantic, 19 Aug. 2021
  • Machine minds have no need for bundles of fur to purr in their laps.
    — Kc Cole, WIRED, 14 July 2023
  • Let a cat settle on your lap and notice the purr rather than scrolling past it.
    — Allison Palmer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 29 May 2026
  • The production wears its metaphors lightly with a wink and a purr.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Their cat might welcome them with loud purrs and excited floor rolls.
    — Alisa Bowman, Discover Magazine, 22 Nov. 2023
  • Here are a variety of gifts to make cats - and their owners - purr with joy.
    — Lois Alter Mark, Forbes, 10 Nov. 2022
  • See below for some adorable kitties who are striving for purr-fect skin, just like you and me-ow.
    — Allure, 2 Nov. 2017
  • No one talks like him — all those offbeat cadences, delivered in a purr.
    — David Marchesephoto Illustration By Bráulio Amado, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2022
  • Here's hoping that this special friend finds the purr-fect family.
    — Lauren Rearick, Teen Vogue, 17 Aug. 2018
  • Snow leopards jump 50 feet in one pounce, have massively bushy tails and purr but don’t roar.
    — Washington Post, 10 Jan. 2020
  • Maya likes to have her beautiful dense coat brushed and will offer up a soft purr of contentment.
    — Arizona Republic, azcentral, 22 June 2018
  • Honey is ready to bring love, purrs and playful cuddles to her forever home.
    — Arkansas Online, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Mangini layered a cat purr over the ornithopter, with tent straps and beetle wings flapping in the wind.
    — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 13 Mar. 2022
  • The symphony of sounds — a roar, a purr, a putter — each engine creates.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2022
  • For those who love cats -- and for that matter, wine -- Sip & Purr could be the purr-fect way to spend a day.
    — Sarah Hauer, USA TODAY, 16 May 2018
  • For many of us, our truest Valentine has four legs, a wagging tail, a gentle purr or a happy chirp.
    — Cathy M. Rosenthal, San Antonio Express-News, 10 Feb. 2026
  • With the wag of a tail or the soothing sounds of a purr, a rescue pet comes into our lives and steals our hearts forever.
    — Amanda Klarsfeld, sun-sentinel.com, 6 Aug. 2020
  • Ed Sheeran found the purr-fect way to celebrate his Grammy wins.
    — Maria Pasquini, PEOPLE.com, 29 Jan. 2018
  • Best Dice Game For a purr-fectly good time with friends, roll the dice and let the games begin.
    — Pamela Brill, Parents, 2 Oct. 2025
  • This century’s Roaring Twenties might be more like a light purr.
    — Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2021
  • Late on a Wednesday night, its steady purr turned to a hard metallic staccato like the grinding gears of a car.
    — Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 12 Mar. 2021
  • Hit the red ignition button and the engine fires with a deep growl and then settles into a rumbling purr.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Sep. 2019
  • As the cat breathes, air touches the vibrating muscles, producing a purr.
    — Iris Katz, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 19 Sep. 2020
  • Buddy is part of a movement, a collective purr from cats all over the world who want more out of life than a warm lap and a broken shoelace.
    — Atlanta Life, ajc, 25 Mar. 2018
  • The sound of church bells and the clatter of feet on cobblestones, even the foreign purr of a diesel engine, calm your synapses.
    — Alex Postman, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Oct. 2017
  • The constant purr of good news has yielded a hashtag, #Euroboom.
    — The Economist, 14 Dec. 2017
  • But instead of grateful purrs, the kittens bit family members on the hand when given milk.
    — Michelle Hunter, NOLA.com, 8 May 2018

purr

2 of 2 verb
  • The cars were purring along the highway.
  • The cat was purring contentedly in my lap.
  • But tourists around Milan found a city that seemed to be less than purring.
    — Jason Horowitz, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2020
  • Purring jaguars prowled about our tents at night along with other unseen beasts.
    — Douglas Preston, The New Yorker, 1 Jan. 2017
  • Something happens when that sound of a purring cat comes from the camera.
    — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 3 Mar. 2026
  • Who makes your nervous system purr instead of spike?
    — Dossé-Via Trenou, Refinery29, 5 Oct. 2025
  • Cats also purr when they’re injured or stressed, not just content.
    — Allison Palmer, Miami Herald, 29 May 2026
  • And so, as promised, here is a full half-hour of Jeff Goldblum purring.
    — Dana Schwartz, EW.com, 6 Apr. 2018
  • But the consensus is that the economy will keep purring along.
    — Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Monday through Friday, the cat could be a calm, purring delight.
    — Matthew Martinez, star-telegram.com, 20 June 2017
  • No matter what the weather is, the last weekend of this month promises to be purr-fect.
    — John Delapp, Houston Chronicle, 3 Jan. 2020
  • Tracy Pew’s basslines were raw—purring and pranging in equal measure.
    — Daniel Dylan Wray, Pitchfork, 11 Oct. 2023
  • But for the last 50 years or so, scientists thought purring did not occur this way.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Oct. 2023
  • Her 11-year-old tabby, Josie, jumped up next to her, purring gently.
    — Antonia Farzan, Washington Post, 20 Dec. 2019
  • First, capture a video of your sleepy kitten purring, or snap a shot of your crazy cat doing aerial stunts.
    — Kelly O'Sullivan, Country Living, 19 July 2019
  • For most of that first day home, his cat sat in his lap, purring and looking up at him in total adoration.
    — Lindsey Vehlewald, SELF, 9 Nov. 2018
  • So do the markets think the economic engine is purring along nicely or about to stall?
    — James MacKintosh, WSJ, 7 Sep. 2017
  • When an economy is purring, profits go up, as do asset values.
    — The Economist, 27 Jan. 2018
  • Zappa's motor purrs the entire time she is getting petted or brushed.
    — The Republic, The Arizona Republic, 3 Mar. 2023
  • Scientists may have finally solved the mystery of how cats purr.
    — Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Detective now sleeps next to my chest or behind Jan’s legs, purring throughout the night.
    — Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 6 Sep. 2023
  • With appropriate treatment, your cat should soon be purring again from petting.
    — Kim Campbell Thornton, sacbee.com, 26 May 2017
  • Medicine can be a family meal, a call to an old friend, a purring cat, an unplugged afternoon, a good book.
    — Francesca Serritella, Philly.com, 19 Jan. 2018
  • The authors of the new study suggest that purring instead results from the laryngeal pads of cats.
    — Jorge Garay, WIRED, 31 Oct. 2023
  • In the video, the cat eventually curls up in a ball and continues purring as Li strokes her head.
    — Lydia Patrick, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Nov. 2025
  • The men handed over the grease gun, and within minutes Belle was purring quietly again.
    — Katherine Rosman Lanna Apisukh, New York Times, 31 Aug. 2023
  • Once the car is purring again, Holthoff says to continue driving it long enough to make up for the cost of the repairs.
    — cleveland.com, 5 May 2018
  • Anyone who's been nuzzled by a purring kitten after a long, hard day at work knows what a difference that makes.
    — John Tufts, The Indianapolis Star, 8 Aug. 2023
  • The feeling that time is purring, that time is on the American family’s side.
    — Francesco Pacifico, The Dial, 9 Dec. 2025
  • When the needle dropped, a delicate choral arrangement purred.
    — Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2020

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