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.
All my attention, however, is quickly commandeered by Autumn when she shudders on the ground.
From Literature
He’s hoping to commandeer another part of their basement, one currently reserved for their cats.
Then the spring from where they drank was commandeered for the settlement’s use, even as the thousands of square miles open to his livestock shrank with every passing year.
From Los Angeles Times
Swift pointed out that nobody wants a guest to commandeer a wedding speech to flaunt their own relationship news.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
