How to Use co-opt in a Sentence

co-opt

verb
  • Both then and now, Nashville’s Music Row tried to co-opt the folk-stomp movement to their own ends.
    Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 24 Mar. 2025
  • Allow me to co-opt the lyrics of a viral TikTok song, because … what the Hellion?
    Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 17 May 2025
  • Party lines get twisted over the years, and messages and brands are co-opted by people.
    Tommy Cummings, Dallas News, 3 Aug. 2023
  • It's been co-opted from Black culture and turned into a stand-in for various slurs.
    Fifth & Mission Podcast, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Mar. 2023
  • The mass media has been mostly co-opted by the ruling BJP to advance its agenda.
    Sumit Ganguly, The Conversation, 4 June 2024
  • But their fury was too easily co-opted by the few who want to wantonly destroy and used the cover of protest to do so.
    Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2025
  • Those who spoke up in self-defense were either silenced or co-opted.
    Deborah Bonello, Los Angeles Times, 14 Nov. 2023
  • At home, that means repressing minorities and co-opting the press.
    Daniel Block, The Atlantic, 30 Nov. 2024
  • Her work was then co-opted and published as proof of pathology under the name George W. Henry.
    Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2023
  • Their biggest concern was about having a hearing person sort of co-opt this and tell this (story).
    Addie Morfoot, Variety, 16 May 2025
  • Long before Adolf Hitler co-opted the swastika as a symbol of the Nazi party in 1920, it was used around the world as an ancient emblem of good fortune.
    Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 May 2025
  • Her campaign in 2019 was a transparent and ill-fated attempt to co-opt the Bernie Sanders wing of the party rather than offer something new.
    Jay Cost, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 16 Aug. 2024
  • His purpose has been co-opted by other, more bloodthirsty men.
    Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 17 Sep. 2024
  • On TikTok, Morris whipped out her guitar and flipped his woe-is-me grievances into a song Sandoval’s band wouldn’t dare try to co-opt.
    Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 27 June 2023
  • These people are co-opting a movement that was created by and for fat people.
    Stephanie Yeboah, refinery29.com, 12 July 2024
  • Within a day, the Trump campaign had moved to co-opt the term as its own – and apply it to his immigration proposals in ads and stump speeches.
    Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 19 May 2024
  • The same sort of efforts to co-opt far-right talking points have been happening across Europe, analysts said.
    Loveday Morris, Washington Post, 25 Nov. 2023
  • The swastika was an important Hindu symbol before it was co-opted by the Nazis.
    Thomas Gibbons-Neff, New York Times, 5 June 2023
  • Meanwhile, the far right in quite a few European countries has co-opted or supplanted the center right that once held sway.
    Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 21 July 2023
  • But since its inception, it has been co-opted and bastardized by those seeking to commodify it to the point that artistry is no longer the focus.
    Spin Staff, Spin, 12 Sep. 2023
  • But modern extremists have co-opted them to invoke a new war on Muslims.
    Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 1 May 2025
  • Saeed said the team wanted to work with the estate to honor Malcolm without appearing to crassly co-opt his image.
    Jason Clinkscales, Sportico.com, 7 Feb. 2025
  • For the bachelor party, it’s been co-opted as a drinking game; Bailey also has timed the song to ensure his own success.
    Mia Galuppo, HollywoodReporter, 18 June 2025
  • Today’s China seeks not to marginalize competing groups and belief systems, the way Beijing did during the Mao era, but to co-opt them.
    Foreign Affairs, 10 June 2024
  • For far too long, hearing folks have co-opted and told our stories, and 100% of them are not reflective of our experiences.
    Mathew Rodriguez, Them., 19 May 2025
  • Once in a while, technology still feels easy and—dare I co-opt the world from Apple's marketing department?—even magical.
    ArsTechnica, 2 Apr. 2025
  • There is also the history of Black culture and music being co-opted.
    A.d. Carson, Scientific American, 4 Sep. 2024
  • If anyone knows how to contact Ralph Nader, please tell him Big Energy has gone too far in co-opting the language of the oppressed … or something like that.
    Pete Cottell, WIRED, 8 Aug. 2024
  • Turner was an access point to music that had been created by Black artists and then co-opted by white artists and white businessmen.
    Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 25 May 2023
  • The game’s narrative eventually shows the player how digital systems can be co-opted for political purposes by the companies that run them, and how the spectral frisson of virtual likes and online exchanges can, in time, flatten us.
    Simon Parkin, The Atlantic, 23 June 2025

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