How to Use verboten in a Sentence

verboten

adjective
  • In the old days, this was verboten.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Shorts and flipflops may be welcomed, but dogs are still verboten.
    — Roger Showley, sandiegouniontribune.com, 17 Feb. 2018
  • Cell phones are strictly verboten on the course among the fans, ahem, patrons.
    — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Apr. 2021
  • Bare midriffs are verboten (even though boys often go shirtless at their camps).
    — David Noyce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 June 2021
  • Collectibles such as stamps, coins, rugs or antiques have long been verboten.
    — Spencer Jakab, WSJ, 17 June 2022
  • At one point, a thousand words were being added to the software's verboten list per day.
    — Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic, 23 May 2017
  • Even asking to do so was oftentimes a verboten act and could stall your career.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 12 Mar. 2021
  • Second, except for the hint of blue in the painting at left, color seems verboten.
    — Catherine Romano, WSJ, 29 June 2018
  • Going to the pool was verboten, so swimming was out, isolation was in.
    — Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2020
  • Would have been sacked a handful of times but was saved because croaking the quarterback was verboten.
    — Jim McBride, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Jan. 2021
  • Some subjects, such as human rights on the mainland, seem likely to become verboten.
    — Doug Bandow, National Review, 20 Aug. 2020
  • There are indeed no words if the only appropriate ones are verboten.
    — Jeremy Stahl, Slate Magazine, 3 Oct. 2017
  • Homemade yogurt dressed with wheat germ and honey, because sugar was verboten, of course.
    — Jonathan Kauffman, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 Jan. 2018
  • Marquee transfers were rare, and paying players was verboten.
    — Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 29 Aug. 2025
  • At the time, bad-mouthing the Soviet Union was almost verboten.
    — Bill Donahue, Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2022
  • Discussing what happened at the end of last season is verboten, however.
    — Rainer Sabin, AL.com, 26 Dec. 2017
  • The idea of putting a life-size anything in any of my small-scale photographs was absolutely verboten in my work.
    — Laura Regensdorf, Vogue, 22 Oct. 2018
  • Bringing growlers and crowlers – take-home beer containers – is verboten for now, Macatangay says.
    — Phillip Valys, sun-sentinel.com, 13 Nov. 2019
  • But should climate denialism be the only verboten point of view on Sunday shows?
    — Jason Zengerle, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2021
  • Gallery guards keep a watchful eye on any verboten photo taking or loud conversation.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 11 Apr. 2026
  • Blackface, of course, is the most verboten and overtly offensive of costume choices.
    — Aj Willingham, CNN, 27 Oct. 2017
  • There’s another sometimes verboten term that Billig Rich isn’t afraid to use.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 25 Sep. 2021
  • Bloodbuzz will also be home to a lineup of domestic craft beers strictly verboten on Prost!
    — Heidi Williams, OregonLive.com, 6 June 2018
  • Not too long ago, audiences turned to late night not to process the world but to forget the world; nightmare fodder so close to bedtime was verboten.
    — Jessica M. Goldstein, Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2020
  • As for unions, the word is practically verboten, despite some noble efforts to the contrary.
    — Jacob Silverman, The New Republic, 21 Apr. 2021
  • These devices are considered verboten among luthiers, who pride themselves on achieving results purely with their own hands.
    — Jennifer Gerste, The New Yorker, 2 July 2021
  • If this sets off customs alarms, Paganini didn’t know taking raw meat into Italy was verboten.
    — Paris Wolfe, cleveland, 14 Nov. 2022
  • That's hot enough to hold an impromptu wiener roast in the backyard, or to make gooey and melty chocolate s'mores on your next camping trip where campfires are verboten.
    — Matt Jancer, Wired, 4 Aug. 2021
  • That also applies in your own hotel for the first two weeks, when public transportation is verboten in a city of gridlocked street traffic.
    — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 July 2021
  • As in a lot of traditional bathhouses in Germany, bathing suits are verboten, which takes some getting used to.
    — William Cook, Condé Nast Traveler, 27 Oct. 2022

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