U-boats
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Lusitania was sunk by a U-boat. Eventually, U-boat attacks on neutral ships drew the United States into the war.
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.
First deployed during World War Two to locate German U-boats, they became central to Cold War submarine-tracking and continue to be used in both military surveillance and search-and-rescue operations.
From BBC • Nov. 23, 2025
Seven U-boats, about 25% of the Mediterranean force, we are told, were sunk in the winter of 1941-42.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025
Guy Ritchie’s latest follows a group of British special forces who took on German U-boats during World War II — and helped inspire James Bond.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 23, 2024
The Allies banned German possession of U-boats in view of their massive submarine campaign in the war, which had sunk not just Allied but neutral shipping.
From Salon • Aug. 19, 2023
The Hotel-Dieu dining room is big and somber and full of people talking about U-boats off Gibraltar and the inequities of currency exchange and four-stroke marine diesel engines.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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.
