How to Use draconian in a Sentence

draconian

adjective

• The editorial criticizes the draconian measures being taken to control the spread of the disease.
• The more that Americans grow accustomed to being jerks, the more draconian the rules of the Masters seem.
  — Paul Daugherty, The Enquirer, 6 Apr. 2022
• Some point to Musk’s draconian cuts at Twitter as a pivot point for the industry.
  — Clare Duffy, CNN, 6 Apr. 2023
• After New York passed a law with draconian limits on Airbnb, chaos reigns.
  — WIRED, 13 Oct. 2023
• The sequester was a gun Congress held to its own head, designed to be so lethal that our lawmakers wouldn’t dare to pull the trigger in the form of draconian budget cuts.
  — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2022
• Enforcement of laws that embody a policy the enforcers agree with, and doing so in a draconian way, is only one face of the coin.
  — Michael B. Mukasey, National Review, 9 May 2023
• Like many African countries, Ghana has draconian antigay laws dating back to the colonial era.
  — Chioma Nnadi, Vogue, 6 Oct. 2022
• And now, with the draconian and anti-science and anti-medicine laws being passed there, the Grants of today have fewer rights than the Grants of yesteryear.
  — Grant Hughes, Glamour, 13 July 2022
• Well, their approach has been very, very severe and rather draconian in the kinds of shutdowns without a seeming purpose.
  — NBC News, 27 Nov. 2022
• His last role, as the face of China’s draconian Covid-19 restrictions, was anything but.
  — Liyan Qi, WSJ, 2 Nov. 2023
• North Korea has taken some of the most draconian steps seen anywhere in the world to try to keep the virus out, describing it as a matter of national survival.
  — Dasl Yoon, WSJ, 13 May 2022
• The agreement is far less draconian than a debt limit bill that passed the House in April with only Republican support.
  — Jim Puzzanghera, BostonGlobe.com, 31 May 2023
• Then there is the nuclear option, a penalty so draconian that no one likes spelling it out in public.
  — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 17 Feb. 2023
• Others lament the inability to enroll their girls in schools, given the draconian edicts of the extremists in charge in Kabul.
  — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 6 Nov. 2023
• Public safety concerns about both seals and sharks could have led to draconian measures, such as culling, but instead nature was left to take its course.
  — Jim Behnke, Scientific American, 2 July 2023
• Word quickly spread that the armed group would impose draconian restrictions on society and shut down schools for girls.
  — USA TODAY, 13 Aug. 2023
• The problem is that the terms of the original venture investor are somewhere between onerous and draconian.
  — Neil Senturia, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Jan. 2024
• That, in part, is a response to Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong and its draconian handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
  — Hisako Ueno, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2023
• They’re taken in by Goth’s Gabi and her husband, before a drunken accident puts them in the jaws of the island’s draconian legal system.
  — Thomas Page, CNN, 27 Jan. 2023
• The cuts were so draconian that Republicans and Democrats would have to come to the negotiating table for a budget deal.
  — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 2023
• Even in places that still have draconian laws on the books, local communities have started to advocate for change.
  — Danielle Pointdujour, Travel + Leisure, 11 Nov. 2023
• But there are a number of legal ways to enter this country--our immigration laws are anything but draconian--and a nation of laws needs the law to start at the border.
  — Arkansas Online, 9 Jan. 2023
• The draconian punishment for one silly video seemed unfair, Ms. Watkins said.
  — Kashmir Hill, New York Times, 27 Nov. 2023
• Shanghai, one of the largest cities in the world, with around 26 million residents, is under strict lockdown, due to draconian government orders.
  — Jack Kelly, Forbes, 12 Apr. 2022
• Again, what may seem like reasonable enough requests have been, in practice, draconian.
  — Prem Thakker, The New Republic, 2 Mar. 2023
• Florida seems set to become the latest U.S. state to impose heavy restrictions on the use of social media by teenagers, in an even more draconian way than others have done.
  — David Meyer, Fortune, 25 Jan. 2024
• That phenomenon is especially true in China, which used draconian measures for years to stop the spread of Covid.
  — Helen Branswell, STAT, 23 Nov. 2023
• But the recent protests at an Apple supplier in Zhengzhou have highlighted the business risks of draconian Chinese Covid policies.
  — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 4 Dec. 2022
• Russia has drug laws that are considered draconian by much of the world, but most Russians possessing small quantities of drugs get at most five years in prison, according to lawyers.
  — Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 5 Aug. 2022
• In Honduras and Ecuador, leaders have copied his draconian security policies, his tough-on-crime rhetoric — and even his fashion choices.
  — Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 25 July 2023

Last Updated: 3 May 2024