commandeer
Americanverb (used with object)
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to order or force into active military service.
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to seize (private property) for military or other public use.
The police officer commandeered a taxi and took off after the getaway car.
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to seize arbitrarily.
verb
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to seize for public or military use
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to seize arbitrarily
Etymology
Origin of commandeer
1880–85; < Afrikaans kommandeer < French commander to command
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.
One more thing: Because they haven’t lived through it, many might be surprised how close to the surface are contingencies that would totally commandeer the U.S. economy and politics for the next few years.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Swift pointed out that nobody wants a guest to commandeer a wedding speech to flaunt their own relationship news.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 7, 2025
The students had gone to Iguala to commandeer buses to take them to an annual protest in Mexico City.
From BBC • May 15, 2025
You took a computer at a place where you commandeer visually several screens at once, and you had also the ability to turn the TV you were watching pretty readily.
From Slate • Sep. 18, 2024
‘He wants to commandeer Goblin for his Colonel.’
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
