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.

People never get up spelling-bees to hear good spelling: the discomfiture of their neighbors is what amuses them most.

From Airy Fairy Lilian by Margaret Wolfe Hamilton (AKA Duchess)

There were spelling-bees in his school, and a debating-society, that had impromptu rehearsals every night at the grocery.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators by Hubbard, Elbert

She had thought the same of Jim Baker that winter he took her to the spelling-bees.

From Hester's Counterpart A Story of Boarding School Life by Jones, Adele W.

They might have saved me a deal of trouble and helped me over some of the high places at the old-fashioned spelling-bees.

From Reveries of a Schoolmaster by Pearson, Francis B.

It is said that in the old evening spelling-bees, his school-teacher, who had him in charge, had to wake the child up when his turn came around to spell.

From The Battle of Principles A Study of the Heroism and Eloquence of the Anti-Slavery Conflict by Hillis, Newell Dwight