How to Use derring-do in a Sentence

derring-do

noun
  • Why, deeds of derring-do, of course, or at least a bit of hearty axe-swinging.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2023
  • Miu Miu wrapped the week in Paris with a derring-do mash up of sportif couture — utterly unique and playful!
    — Rhonda Richford, WWD, 2 Oct. 2024
  • Spy movies often play up the action, but there’s a lot of paperwork behind the derring-do.
    — Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 5 Apr. 2024
  • Expect to see the young stars of tomorrow in all manner of derring-do, from aerial acts to juggling.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Robinson remains a standard of derring-do as a base runner.
    — Bob Ryan, BostonGlobe.com, 14 July 2023
  • Each play essential parts in the action, and do their fair share of conniving and derring-do to aid or defeat the grand, evil purposes of the bad guys.
    — Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2024
  • Much derring-do, in their quest for unimaginable riches, would ensue.
    — Alex Ritman, Variety, 30 Oct. 2024
  • The doers here are the bad guys, much like in Scorsese pictures past, but now their impunity isn’t a matter of escapist wish fulfillment and scoundrel-y derring-do.
    — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2023
  • The results include a handful of showdowns—one in the Khan family house, several in outer space—and some derring-do with spacecraft.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 9 Nov. 2023
  • The early years of the motion-picture industry were centered around fights, on shootouts, on slapstick pratfalls, and other feats of physical derring-do.
    — Jordan Crucchiola, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2024
  • In the end, notes can be merely notions, providing new ways of describing a perfumer’s masterful derring-do.
    — Town & Country, 1 May 2023
  • Now married to his own Prince Charming and father to a 10-year-old daughter, Cedric recounts his own exploits and feats of derring-do to his young daughter preparing to follow in his footsteps.
    — Ben Croll, Variety, 20 Feb. 2024
  • Pink may be known for her feats of derring-do, but there’s no fearlessness like withstanding the slings and arrows of being a reasonably outspoken public figure.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 15 Feb. 2023
  • There’s real valor, if not derring-do, in their songwriting, which never lands on anything resembling treacle.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 1 Nov. 2023
  • What follows is an overlong concatenation of OK set pieces featuring oodles of predictable globe-hopping derring-do.
    — Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 June 2023
  • Boyd’s memoir vividly paints that place and time, spiced by tales of derring-do — trapping wolves for radio-collar research, surviving close calls with grizzly bears, crossing icy rivers and flying small planes low over dangerous terrain.
    — Ben Long, The Denver Post, 12 Sep. 2024
  • The very idea that this show, so defined by the electricity of its kitchen, would set nearly the entire second season in a building that very conspicuously doesn’t even have its gas on, is a staggering feat of televisual derring-do.
    — Phillip MacIak, The New Republic, 30 June 2023
  • Those updates references – and the series of chases, Rube Goldberg mechanisms, and bits of derring-do they all precipitate – also allowed the filmmaking to push their formal boundaries.
    — Ben Croll, Variety, 14 June 2023
  • This last movement, with its not-so-reckless abandon, was the big thrill of the night, Cho quickening his dialogue with the orchestra, intensifying his feats of dynamic derring-do, even applying a bit of barroom swagger here and there.
    — Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024
  • Her show documents her derring-do of taking on unusual challenges ranging from training as an astronaut to rehearsing for a Broadway show to learning to becoming a 911 dispatcher.
    — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 27 Aug. 2023
  • Instead, showrunner Gemma Burgess has put together an irreverent engaging romp rife with witty banter, political intrigue, and a bit of derring-do—not to mention a killer soundtrack.
    — Ars Technica, 24 Dec. 2024
  • Trump’s baseless accusations and his flat-out lies are as essential to his public identity as are his tales of financial derring-do, his coarse language, his prejudices and his listing toward autocracy.
    — Robin Givhan, Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2024
  • In 2019, Prigozhin began releasing Hollywood-style movies that celebrate mercenary derring-do.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2023
  • Intercutting talking heads with fantastic scenes of derring-do, Abnett and Lanning make lovable, irascible characters out of heretofore minor figures in the Marvel Universe.
    — Joe George, menshealth.com, 6 May 2023
  • Small operators, with far less infrastructure than a utility company and far more derring-do, might experiment more freely and come up with valuable innovations more quickly.
    — Ross Koningstein, IEEE Spectrum, 18 Nov. 2014
  • Usually some combination of bold ambition, auteur cred, and technical derring-do.
    — Nate Jones, Vulture, 3 Jan. 2025

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