How to Use deferential in a Sentence

deferential

adjective

• The joke was neither too harsh nor too deferential.
  — Hershal Pandya, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2025
• One wonders whether a few era-deferential tokes might have loosened them up a bit.
  — Robert Abele, Detroit Free Press, 27 June 2019
• Trump will meet with these kids and his presence could very well compel the kids to be deferential to him.
  — Drew Magary, GQ, 22 Feb. 2018
• At each one, my father got out of the car, and was extremely deferential.
  — Sanna Wani, Time, 7 Aug. 2019
• But there is nothing overly pat or deferential about the lessons the play imparts.
  — Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 24 Nov. 2019
• The Meloni-like cherub is shown in a deferential pose toward the king.
  — Ashley J. Dimella, FOXNews.com, 3 Feb. 2026
• It’s taken me a long time to kind of let go of being deferential, that someone else knows better.
  — Angie Martoccio, Rolling Stone, 30 June 2026
• That sort of deferential nature can slow down the reaction time.
  — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, 12 Jan. 2018
• Ohtani remained deferential to Darvish, who is eight years his senior.
  — Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2024
• But the need to be deferential clearly did not mean tough questioning was off limits.
  — Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 16 Nov. 2019
• Then the once-deferential females rise up and wage bloody battles against one another to vie for the crown.
  — Jeanna Bryner, Scientific American, 15 Apr. 2026
• Buttigieg was deferential, speaking about six minutes as a warmup for Harris, who spoke more than twice as long.
  — Noah Bierman, Los Angeles Times, 2 Dec. 2021
• Brenna is hip and intrusive, while Muir is deferential to a fault.
  — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 17 July 2024
• Cheers washed across the space center, but fell to a deferential silence as the roar of the engines cracked through the air with a deafening roar.
  — Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel, 16 Nov. 2022
• Many officers also think the country has become too deferential to the armed services for its own good.
  — Anna Mulrine Grobe, Christian Science Monitor, 26 Apr. 2025
• Rival agents in the past have criticized the union as deferential to Boras.
  — Evan Drellich, The Athletic, 5 Dec. 2024
• Just how deferential to Trump do voters want New York’s leaders to be?
  — Donna Lieberman, New York Daily News, 19 Jan. 2025
• Maryna said her father, once deferential to Russia, was changed by the ordeal.
  — Anastacia Galouchka, Washington Post, 13 July 2022
• On a team of superstars, Salaam was a bashful giant, deferential and unselfish to the last.
  — Sean Keeler, The Denver Post, 10 Dec. 2024
• Rap fans want to hear artists take it all the way there, not be overly conscientious and almost deferential on the battlefield.
  — Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 5 Apr. 2024
• The Supreme Court has grown more deferential to Trump, who appointed three of its nine members.
  — Noah Bierman, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2024
• The show has Levy spending a lot of time at luxury hotels, where fame affords him deferential treatment.
  — Nicholas Cannariato, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2023
• And uncles and cousins have told him of the importance of being respectful, even deferential, to police.
  — Cleve R. Wootson Jr., chicagotribune.com, 11 July 2018
• For all its ideals of peace and reaching across borders, the Olympics has always been deferential to existing nations.
  — Victor Mather, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2023
• The lower court held that the ban is subject to rational-basis review, the most deferential of the three tiers of scrutiny.
  — Melissa Quinn, CBS News, 4 Dec. 2024
• Beverly, Margot and Elsie were raised to be deferential to their husbands on matters big and small.
  — Diane Garrett, Los Angeles Times, 3 Mar. 2026
• Alston makes clear that the NCAA is not owed deferential review.
  — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 3 Sep. 2019
• Pinnacle members receive a gold pin, and a few wear it on the ship as a badge of honor and expect deferential treatment from both passengers and crew.
  — Roger Dooley, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025
• Everyone was entirely deferential to the tall and stately chanteuse, who wore the most purple of bonnets and the most scarlet of lipstick.
  — Doug MacCash, NOLA.com, 1 Apr. 2018
• Amodei is forcibly removed and replaced with a deferential Army general.
  — Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 27 Apr. 2026