How to Use grudging in a Sentence

grudging

adjective

• He has earned the grudging admiration of his rivals.
• Her theories have begun to win grudging acceptance in the scientific community.
• But Villanueva was not of a mind to accept even such grudging praise.
  — Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2022
• And locals will say that in a grudging way, so as not to unduly raise people's hopes.
  — Lawrence Specker, AL.com, 22 May 2017
• This should earn him at least some grudging respect from most media folk but probably won’t.
  — James Freeman, WSJ, 1 June 2018
• Above all, the memorial has the feel of a grudging concession.
  — Alexander Nazaryan, Newsweek, 15 Apr. 2015
• Grifters, for all our grudging admiration, rarely come to happy ends.
  — Ligaya Mishan, New York Times, 12 Sep. 2019
• The two also have a grudging but mutual respect for each other and have learned how to keep their fights fair.
  — Kevyn Burger Special To The Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 22 Jan. 2021
• Yet there is one anthropologist who has grudging respect for the film.
  — Daniel Immerwahr, The New Republic, 24 Mar. 2021
• Esther tells this story with a certain grudging respect for her father.
  — Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2023
• The can’t-stand-the-other-guy vote, the grudging hold-your nose-vote, is one way that democracies are supposed to work.
  — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 25 Apr. 2022
• In the midst of mid-tour press, bands often talk about the road with a grudging respect, a necessary evil of living the dream.
  — Dylan Owens, The Know, 6 Apr. 2017
• Thirty-seven hundred dollars was more like a grudging acceptance that the men worked at all.
  — Michael Scott Moore, The New Yorker, 25 May 2022
• The grudging answer was usually yes.
  — Jp Mangalindan, Time, 5 Apr. 2026
• So the narrative is Elvis appealing to the host, to earn his grudging approval.
  — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 9 Feb. 2024
• Covington is getting little in the way of similar grudging props in the wake of his big defeat.
  — Dave Doyle, MMA Junkie, 15 Dec. 2019
• Now, there’s an acceptance – grudging or otherwise – that the game will never be the same, for better or worse.
  — Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 13 Nov. 2020
• Carefully, that’s how, with grudging respect for the curveballs the asteroid can throw you.
  — IEEE Spectrum, 14 Oct. 2020
• On the right, there is a different kind of grudging admiration for the Beijing way.
  — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 21 Aug. 2019
• After a moment, both raised their hands, a grudging show of support for their President and rival.
  — Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 24 Aug. 2023
• But the pair have a grudging mutual respect that makes for a fun, strange-bedfellows partnership.
  — Peter White, Deadline, 4 May 2026
• Saturday marked a different tone and maybe a grudging acceptance of the inevitable.
  — Chuck Carlton, Dallas News, 24 July 2021
• But the tone in North Korea’s media has remained suspicious and grudging.
  — Mark Landler, BostonGlobe.com, 22 May 2018
• His grudging decision in July not to run came too late to qualify as statesmanship.
  — Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 18 Jan. 2025
• As the two come to a stalemate, a grudging respect passes between Sammo and Donnie.
  — Vikram Murthi, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2024
• Nobody seemed to regard the idea as brilliant, and in general responses ranged from grudging acceptance to shocked scorn.
  — Eric Gordy, Foreign Affairs, 10 Oct. 2018
• Living in Appalachia comes with an awareness, and grudging tolerance, of some amount of pollution.
  — E. Tammy Kim, The New Yorker, 19 Apr. 2024
• Critics, watching Curry battle the Mighty James to at least a draw, gave grudging respect.
  — Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 June 2018
• This grudging regard was evident last month, when Dugdale died in a Dublin nursing home at age 82.
  — Theresa McKinney, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Apr. 2024
• Volkswagen’s profit-making prospects are on the mend and there’s a grudging positivity among investors who have lived through a few false dawns over the years.
  — Neil Winton, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2025