Pilate
Britishnoun
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.
I wasn’t offered the part of Mary Magdalene, which I wanted, but of Pontius Pilate.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026
"He cannot do a Pontius Pilate and maintain he cannot interfere because policing is devolved."
From BBC • Oct. 19, 2025
Raúl Esparza, whom I can still hear singing “Being Alive” from the 2006 Broadway revival of “Company,” played Pontius Pilate with lip-smacking villainy.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 4, 2025
But as Jesus’s crucifixion grows near, Pilate is increasingly frightened by how restless the crowd is getting.
From Salon • May 3, 2024
They simply stopped singing and Reba went on paring her toenails, Hagar threaded and unthreaded her hair, and Pilate swayed like a willow over her stirring.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
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.
