understudying

verb

present participle of understudy
as in substituting

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for understudying
  1. substituting
  2. standing in
  3. subbing
  4. filling in
  5. taking over
  6. pinch-hitting
  7. stepping in
  8. covering
Verb
  • For centuries, technology has lowered costs by substituting mechanical power for human labor.
    — Robert Pearl, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
  • In the early days of the republic, there were many radicals and reformers who shared my suspicion that patriotism was an evasion, substituting songs and speeches about liberty for the reality.
    — Dominic Erdozain, Time, 3 July 2026
Definition of substituting
Verb
  • The Boys had the Vought corporation standing in for the show’s own platform, Amazon, and Superman has an Elon Musk figure in Lex Luthor.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 22 July 2026
  • Moments later the Tesla Model 3 raced down a residential street in Katy, Texas, at highway speeds, slammed into a brick home and killed a 76-year-old woman standing in the front room.
    — Bernard Condon, Fortune, 16 July 2026
Definition of standing in
Verb
  • Less than a minute after subbing on for 22-year-old Sarah Schupansky, Gotham goalkeeper and former Chelsea teammate Ann-Katrin Berger’s long ball reached Kerr.
    — Melanie Anzidei, New York Times, 16 July 2026
  • The Midnight riff comes to us from Sam Ross, then of the legendary Milk & Honey, and turns the classic into a sour, bringing lemon juice to tart up the old Stinger profile but subbing bourbon for Cognac and Fernet Branca for the mint liqueur.
    — Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 4 July 2026
Definition of subbing
Verb
  • Guthrie sat next to Sheinelle Jones, who was filling in for Melvin on Monday.
    — Lara Walsh, InStyle, 20 July 2026
  • For this week’s Infinite Scroll column, Brady Brickner-Wood is filling in for Kyle Chayka.
    — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 15 July 2026
Definition of filling in
Verb
  • The retailer has expanded the space by 140 percent, taking over an area formerly dedicated to tableware, crockery and small home furnishings.
    — Samantha Conti, Footwear News, 23 July 2026
  • The San Francisco campus is taking over the site of the California College of the Arts, the 119-year-old institution that will graduate its final class in 2027 after struggling with falling enrollment and a roughly $20 million deficit.
    — Sydney Lake, Fortune, 23 July 2026
Definition of taking over
Verb
  • In the prior series in Cincinnati, he was benched for two games, reduced to pinch-hitting.
    — Justice delos Santos, Mercury News, 7 July 2026
  • Mickey Gasper led off the seventh with a single and Andruw Monasterio, pinch-hitting for Seigler, greeted left-hander Brent Headrick with a one-out single.
    — Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald, 7 June 2026
Definition of pinch-hitting
Verb
  • As Bay Area art schools flounder under financial strain, Silicon Valley is increasingly stepping in as an influential force in the region’s cultural landscape.
    — Tessa Solomon, ARTnews.com, 22 July 2026
  • Jobs are shifting from operating software to managing a hybrid workforce of humans and agents—setting goals, validating outputs, and stepping in when judgment is required.
    — Girija Krishnamurthy, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
Definition of stepping in
Verb
  • The prefect of the Gironde region that includes Bordeaux ordered the evacuation in the early hours of Saturday, covering parts of three of the city’s western suburbs, including its airport.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 25 July 2026
  • After about seven years of covering politics every day, the repetition of the photographs started to wear on her.
    — Sarah Silbiger, CNN Money, 25 July 2026
Definition of covering
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

understudy
understudying
undersupplies
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Cite this Entry

“Understudying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/understudying. Accessed 29 Jul. 2026.

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