How to Use sham in a Sentence

sham

1 of 3 noun

• He claims that the trial was a sham.
• Their marriage was a sham.
• She exposed their sham and hypocrisy.
• Many people believed he could help them, but I knew he was a sham.
• It’s a sham, a short con or a long one, and the deck is stacked against you.
  — John Archibald | [e-mail], al, 3 June 2022
• And of course, the whole impeachment process is just a sham.
  — Fox News Staff, Fox News, 28 Apr. 2021
• Still, critics and activists have called the election a sham.
  — Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 18 Mar. 2024
• Covid isn’t fatal, the tests are a sham, and says Kuzma was just a sickly man.
  — Sam Kestenbaum, Rolling Stone, 17 Sep. 2022
• Still, Facebook’s critics were ready to call out the Oversight Board as a sham.
  — Steven Levy, WIRED, 8 Nov. 2022
• This sham of a lockout can be explained by one word: greed.
  — Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2022
• But it’s a sham, and creates dire consequences for people caught in a web of fines and fees.
  — John Archibald | [e-mail], al, 19 Sep. 2022
• Because beating around the bush can give your business the appearance of a sham or a scheme.
  — John Hall, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2021
• Plan your ribbon placement (our top ribbon starts 1-inch down from the top corners of the sham).
  — Sonja Carmon, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Apr. 2021
• The rumors refused to die, no matter how many times they have been exposed as a sham.
  — Michael Smolenscolumnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Apr. 2022
• It’s offered in two sizes and a selection of ten colors, and the set includes two shams as well.
  — Jamie Weissman, Better Homes & Gardens, 13 July 2023
• Among them is Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has spent much of the past decade behind bars on charges rights groups say are a sham.
  — Siobhán O'Grady, Washington Post, 14 Aug. 2023
• Navalny and his team said the charges were fabricated to silence him and slammed the trials as a sham.
  — Washington Post, 22 Mar. 2022
• And so, this last chance for white male identity to find its purpose through war is revealed to be a sham.
  — The Politics Of Everything, The New Republic, 24 May 2023
• In their lawsuit, the investors claim the banks should have seen the signs that Stanford’s operation was a sham.
  — Laurel Brubaker Calkins, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Feb. 2023
• Meanwhile, Democrats, who have for months labeled the audit a sham, doubled down.
  — Stacey Barchenger, The Arizona Republic, 25 Sep. 2021
• But as anyone who’s ever made a drastic life change knows, the idea of a totally new you is a sham.
  — Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Apr. 2022
• Anything less would grant the crypto industry an enormous privilege in the true sense of the word and make a sham of the rule of law.
  — Matt Sekerke, National Review, 1 Oct. 2021
• When Pons and Fleischmann published a paper at last, their work was savaged as a sham.
  — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 1 Mar. 2023
• Along with the cover, the set comes with two matching pillow shams of the same material.
  — Isabel Garcia, Peoplemag, 11 Aug. 2023
• Each set comes with a comforter, two standard pillow shams, two Euro shams, and a bed skirt with a 16-inch drop.
  — Sharon Brandwein, Southern Living, 3 Aug. 2023
• Aside from the twin and twin XL sizes, the set comes with a duvet cover and two pillow shams—the two smallest sizes only come with one sham.
  — Kylee McGuigan, Popular Mechanics, 27 Apr. 2022
• The set includes a comforter, flat and fitted sheet, pillowcase and sham.
  — Jamie Kim, Good Housekeeping, 7 Nov. 2022
• At the news conference Wednesday, Zalkin that the move to divest assets was a sham that had been years in the making.
  — San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Feb. 2023
• But their counteroffer to the President's plan is a sham -- based on three faulty premises.
  — Jeffrey Sachs, CNN, 1 June 2021
• This was a much bigger idea than the right of a naturopath to sell sham detoxifying candles.
  — Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, The New Republic, 28 Feb. 2023

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sham

2 of 3 adjective

• The money would be paid to a sham charity, and then used for bribes.
  — NBC News, 11 Nov. 2021
• He was put on the court through a sham process, and his place on the court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice.
  — Michelle Ruiz, Vogue, 16 Sep. 2019
• Court records show that Whitaker ran Loan Starters, a sham business in Texas.
  — Chase Jordan, Charlotte Observer, 22 Feb. 2024
• Do not go to one of those sham tech training institutes.
  — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 13 Mar. 2019
• The set comes with the duvet cover, as well as two sham pillowcases.
  — Madeline Diamond, Travel + Leisure, 11 Apr. 2020
• This trial wasn’t like so many others where some enrollees get the drug in question and others get a sham dose.
  — Andrew Joseph, STAT, 3 Apr. 2023
• In the sham trials of the Jim Crow South, everyone knew the verdict before it was delivered.
  — John Blake, CNN, 5 Feb. 2020
• Kern also took part in the sham hand-recount of ballots in Maricopa County in 2021.
  — WIRED, 15 Nov. 2023
• This Sunday, the regime of Nicolas Maduro will hold a sham parliamentary election in Venezuela.
  — Jorge Jraissati, National Review, 2 Dec. 2020
• Gates believes a sham audit in Arizona was a petri dish for denialism.
  — Jess Bidgood, BostonGlobe.com, 4 Nov. 2022
• Pathogen exposure and not the sham treatment changed the ants’ behavior in ways that further protected the colony.
  — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 26 Nov. 2018
• Instead, there is torture, a sham trial, and a gulag (called laogai).
  — Nr Editors, National Review, 20 June 2019
• The risk of a sham or counterfeit drives piracy and counterfeiting.
  — Wayne Lonstein, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2021
• In one study, a surgeon gave patients a sham knee surgery, where the surgeon made an incision, but did nothing to the knee before sewing it back up.
  — Avery Hurt, Discover Magazine, 3 June 2022
• And these are some of the things that can potentially influence how people perceive the sham treatment.
  — Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 26 Sep. 2023
• The sham audit in Arizona continues, although behind closed doors, unlike the open counts and recounts of ballots the first time.
  — Zachary B. Wolf, CNN, 19 May 2021
• Did QAnon sneak in (or get invited) to Arizona's sham election audit?
  — Richard Ruelas, The Arizona Republic, 20 May 2021
• After a sham trial, Clayton, Jackson, and McGhie were declared guilty.
  — National Geographic, 4 June 2020
• That non-profit, as well as other shell entities, made sham payments to the defendants.
  — Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 20 Aug. 2020
• His lawyers allege Edison conducted a sham investigation and used the complaints to push him out of his job.
  — Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 2 June 2022
• After a sham trial lacking due process and transparency, the Saudi court sentenced him to 20 years in prison plus a 20-year travel ban after his time served.
  — Areej Al-Sadhan, CNN, 1 July 2022
• But there was no such deception here in that the existence of the sham candidates was well publicized prior to Election Day.
  — Eric Zorn, chicagotribune.com, 19 July 2019
• The allegations that a group of men ran a sham school and production company all to prey upon young women at the start of their careers are appalling.
  — Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2019
• In Gabon and Niger, youngsters fed up with sham politics crowd streets and stadiums to yell slogans in favor of military coups.
  — Declan Walsh, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2023
• The resulting sham prosecution made plain to Waring the hypocrisy of the Justice Department’s efforts.
  — Joseph Crespino, WSJ, 18 Jan. 2019
• Waters said Fleming helped to divert millions of dollars to an account set up by Murdaugh for a sham company.
  — NBC News, 29 Oct. 2021
• He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show.
  — Susanne Craig, The Seattle Times, 2 Oct. 2018
• He has been sentenced to death after a legal proceeding that has been widely criticized as a sham trial.
  — Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News, 21 Aug. 2023
• One defrauded his school of up to a million dollars, including more than seven hundred thousand to buy a building in the name of a sham nonprofit.
  — Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 16 Mar. 2023
• By this time, 28% of people who received the full treatment protocol were still not smoking, compared with 12% of those who received the sham stimulation.
  — Simon Makin, Scientific American, 13 June 2023

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sham

3 of 3 verb

• He was shamming illness to avoid work.
• She wasn't really hurt; she was only shamming.
• So the Russians have been named and shamed by the press and the government.
  — CBS News, 22 Jan. 2020
• Boehner was crying-shamed by the female hosts of The View.
  — Maureen Stanton, Longreads, 17 Jan. 2020
• A few days later on The View, host Goldberg shamed Thorne for taking the pics in the first place.
  — Kaitlin Reilly, refinery29.com, 20 June 2019
• Next to be shamed was a couple walking a dog on a lonely path.
  — New York Times, 2 Apr. 2020
• But since she was put in that position, Thorne shouldn't be shamed.
  — Brittney McNamara, Allure, 20 June 2019
• The reason is that shaming can lead to more defensiveness or self-loathing on the part of the shamed.
  — Danny Westneat, The Seattle Times, 30 Mar. 2019
• If a woman was both, she would be shamed for it on a daily basis.
  — Jennifer Wright, Harper's BAZAAR, 9 July 2018
• But the body shaming began long before the video's release.
  — Christina Oehler, Health.com, 27 May 2020
• Just more than a week earlier, critics on her page shamed Pink for taking her kids to the zoo.
  — Sonja Haller, USA TODAY, 17 July 2019
• Graham couldn't help but respond to the body-shaming comment.
  — Fox News, 30 Aug. 2018
• In one, some people shamed her for not driving an older car that was paid off.
  — Janna Herron, USA TODAY, 6 Sep. 2019
• Many of Jeffree's fans rushed to his defense and dug up past racist and fat-shaming tweets from Gabriel, Laura, and crew.
  — Teryn Payne, Teen Vogue, 24 Aug. 2018
• This isn't the first time Hill has addressed body shaming on social media.
  — Neha Prakash, Allure, 10 Sep. 2019
• Presidents had approved such exploits in secret, but the C.I.A. was blamed and shamed.
  — Tim Weiner, New York Times, 14 May 2020
• Some online critics went as far as shaming Markle's dress choice.
  — Erica Gonzales, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 Oct. 2018
• Body shaming against any person, for any reason, is wrong.
  — Melissa A. Fabello, SELF, 26 June 2018
• Talking with her about your own feelings (without shaming or blaming) will help to clear the air.
  — Amy Dickinson, oregonlive, 5 Jan. 2020
• The names were listed as applicants for loans to sham businesses.
  — Los Angeles Times, 16 July 2021
• There are many ways society shames women and girls, and sexuality is right there at the top of the list.
  — Brittney McNamara, Teen Vogue, 6 Nov. 2019
• In the first three episodes alone, Plum is fat-shamed more times than most people will ever experience.
  — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, 1 June 2018
• Photos of my bare breasts and face reached the screens of boys at my high school and across the state, with the intent of exposing my nudity and shaming my body.
  — Leah Juliett, Glamour, 4 June 2018
• Secure ribbons to sham by starting ironing in the center and working toward the edge.
  — Sonja Carmon, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Apr. 2021
• No one owes anyone else an explanation about their weight, and no one should be shamed or made fun of because of their body.
  — Brittney McNamara, Teen Vogue, 12 Nov. 2019
• Some dubbed the public shaming the Tiziana Cantone effect.
  — Rossalyn Warren, The Atlantic, 16 May 2018
• Ratajkowski posted a photo of her and King on the beach, which led to trolls body-shaming her friend on Instagram.
  — Nicole Saunders, Harper's BAZAAR, 14 Mar. 2019
• Kardashian West has been mom-shamed for her decision to let her young daughter wear makeup in the past.
  — Stacey Leasca, Glamour, 15 Sep. 2019
• Other cases involved fake students and sham or fly-by-night schools.
  — Kevin Krause, Dallas News, 26 Nov. 2020
• At the same time, older men who have been getting a free pass for their bad behavior are publicly getting called out and shamed.
  — NBC News, 14 June 2019

Last Updated: 3 May 2024