How to Use sober in a Sentence

sober

1 of 2 adjective
  • The story is a sober look at drug abuse.
  • The article is a sober reflection on the state of our nation.
  • He is a sober, hardworking farmer.
  • I'm driving, so I have to stay sober tonight.
  • Illness is a sober reminder of our mortality.
  • By the time of the hearing, the veteran was 560 days sober.
    Beth Warren, USA Today, 9 Mar. 2023
  • By his own account, the younger Biden had been sober since June 2019.
    Richard Rubin, WSJ, 8 Dec. 2023
  • Best to take a deep breath, avoid getting drunk on the vision and get sober on the numbers.
    Shawn Tully, Fortune, 25 May 2023
  • This is your only warning to slow down and drive sober.
    Alexis Stevens, ajc, 2 July 2023
  • Trejo would be released from prison for the final time in 1969 and has been sober since.
    Colin Scanlon, Redbook, 17 Aug. 2023
  • Tiffany Haddish has revealed that she’s been sober for more than two months.
    Carly Thomas, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Mar. 2024
  • In the business world, founders are adopting a sober lifestyle and reaping the rewards as well.
    L'oreal Thompson Payton, Fortune Well, 5 Apr. 2023
  • Who can look the most nonchalant, the most sober and yet the most elevated?
    Rachel Tashjian, Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2024
  • However, Kauffman said that Perry was sober at the time of his death.
    Ellise Shafer, Variety, 1 Nov. 2023
  • For Armstrong, who has been sober for years, the song has a deeply personal meaning.
    Spin Staff, SPIN, 7 Dec. 2023
  • Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent has been sober since 2018.
    Louis Staples, Rolling Stone, 23 Sep. 2023
  • The board claimed that the church helped Houston get sober and that Houston apologized to the woman in question.
    Jessica Sager, Peoplemag, 16 May 2023
  • And my husband and I have a daughter, Courtney, who is 16 years sober and bipolar.
    Kayla Dwyer, The Indianapolis Star, 23 Feb. 2024
  • Aside from a few one-off, one-drink instances, she’s been sober since January.
    Drew Schwartz, SELF, 12 Sep. 2023
  • Todd was known as a Jekyll-and-Hyde type, Flock writes—sweet when sober, terrifying when high on a cocktail of meth and Xanax.
    Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024
  • At the time, Biden, who had been addicted to crack cocaine, was struggling to remain sober.
    Compiled By Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 7 Sep. 2023
  • After a bout with alcoholism in his late 20s, Rob has been sober for nearly 30 years.
    Cori Ritchey, Men's Health, 14 Mar. 2023
  • Rob Lowe gifted his son John Owen with a special surprise as Owen marked five years of being sober.
    Charmaine Patterson, Peoplemag, 8 Apr. 2023
  • Fortunately, the leaders of the two Communist countries proved more sober than those in the White House.
    David E. Sanger, New York Times, 30 Nov. 2023
  • McDaniel had a candid talk with his team during the week about the eight-year anniversary of going sober.
    David Furones, Sun Sentinel, 9 Jan. 2024
  • Clements has been sober for decades while in prison, according to attorneys.
    Jasmine Hilton, Washington Post, 14 Nov. 2023
  • When urged to get sober for an the next season, Cloud was not interested, Levinson said.
    Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times, 26 Sep. 2023
  • Getting sober of course meant repairing decades of damage, in my life and in others’.
    Mike Scalise, Harper's BAZAAR, 26 May 2023
  • To fellow cast members, most of the drama between the now-exes came when Radke was sober and Hubbard was drinking.
    Kelly Wynne, Peoplemag, 29 Mar. 2024
  • Among many other ideas for the rewrites, Zendaya had pitched an idea in which Rue, who is now sober as a twentysomething young woman, would be a pregnancy surrogate.
    Tatiana Siegel, Variety, 29 Mar. 2024
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sober

2 of 2 verb
  • He returned home from the war, saddened and sobered by his experiences.
  • All of the gymnastic moves from the night sobered me up.
    The Cut, 17 Sep. 2017
  • But the broader lessons of the north-east are sobering.
    The Economist, 22 Feb. 2018
  • That day, my dad sobered up and never had a drink the rest of his life.
    Adam Bryant, New York Times, 9 June 2017
  • Officers took the man to the Westlake jail to sober up and calm down.
    Bruce Geiselman, cleveland, 14 Aug. 2021
  • And for the wise aunts who make strong coffee, so the crazy uncles may sober up.
    John Kass, chicagotribune.com, 23 Dec. 2017
  • Wrestling with the high cost of care The statistics are sobering.
    Maria L. La Ganga, idahostatesman, 26 Aug. 2017
  • The failure of the health care push also sobered Trump, allies say.
    Philip Elliott, Time, 11 Jan. 2018
  • Workers who show up drunk these days are sent home to sober up.
    Sydney Ember Kim Raff, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2022
  • For small towns, mid-sized suburbs and big cities alike, the abrupt switch has been sobering.
    Don Stacom, courant.com, 9 July 2019
  • Schmidt explained to the nurse that there was nothing for her father to sober up from.
    Kelly Davis, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Apr. 2022
  • The fact that Covid will always be with us should not freak people out but sober them up.
    The Editors, National Review, 22 Dec. 2021
  • The Knicks, who had fallen behind, were starting to sober up.
    Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, 6 Dec. 2021
  • The stats are sobering: Nearly half of all women over the age 50 in the U.S. will break a bone due to the condition.
    Madeleine Burry, Woman's Day, 15 Oct. 2019
  • This is a movie in which the de-rigueur baptism scene is of the preacher himself being dunked to sober up.
    Author: Ann Hornaday, Anchorage Daily News, 28 June 2018
  • But one area of the house is sobering for those dispensing mean-girl slights.
    Brad Wete, Billboard, 16 June 2017
  • When divvied up by region, race and class, the results are sobering.
    John Myers, latimes.com, 9 June 2019
  • Trump seems, if anything, sobered by the gravity of his new role.
    vanityfair.com, 27 Apr. 2017
  • This is sobering news for the company, which has watched iPad sales drop for years.
    Don Reisinger, Fortune, 29 Jan. 2020
  • The policy is likely to sober up some of the heaviest drinkers.
    The Economist, 1 Mar. 2018
  • The past few weeks have been sobering for Deontay Long.
    Mark Stewart, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7 Aug. 2017
  • Although the report is sobering, the study’s authors said there is hope.
    Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, 8 Oct. 2019
  • His father wound up signing the court summons and he was taken to the Bedford Jail to sober up.
    Thomas Jewell, cleveland, 31 July 2021
  • Primary voters should be sobered by the magnitude of the stakes.
    William A. Galston, WSJ, 13 Nov. 2018
  • Has any drunk person ever noshed on an apple to sober up?
    William Earl, Variety, 21 Mar. 2022
  • The stat is sobering and telling of a company in transition.
    Adam Lashinsky, Fortune, 23 June 2017
  • This year’s free agent market, or lack thereof, had to be sobering for players and agents.
    John Fay, Cincinnati.com, 17 Mar. 2018
  • After three rounds of bombs-away frivolity, Erin Hills sobered up.
    Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 19 June 2017
  • Those numbers are sobering for anyone hoping that a wave of customer demand is going to force airlines and cruise companies to cut their emissions.
    Time, 22 June 2023
  • There are sobering questions about what teachers can accomplish and how likely students are to do well in the circumstances in their classrooms, no matter what approach to teaching is used.
    Alan J. Borsuk, Journal Sentinel, 7 June 2023

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