Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

As the cost of living rises, a new report suggests people on low incomes are pawning their possessions to pay for everyday essentials.

From BBC • May 13, 2022

Instead, they are saying utilities are pawning off much of the projects' risks on customers because bank lenders and investors will not take the risks.

From Washington Post • Mar. 2, 2010

“You’re standing at the counter and people are pawning microwaves and drills, and here comes a Super Bowl ring.”

From Washington Post

The best are pawning the commonest necessaries, and tools of their trades; and the worst are homeless vagrants who give us no clue to their having been otherwise in bygone days.

From The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete by Forster, John

Furthermore, widows have a way of appearing to be loaded down with ducats, when, in reality, they are pawning the late defunct's unmentionables for the means of existence.

From Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 39, December 24, 1870. by Various