oiling

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 learned that oiling the blade prevents humidity from tarnishing the steel.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 23, 2025

The high concentration of pine forest in North Gyeongsang province, where the fires are burning, is also "oiling" the blaze, said a forest disaster expert.

From BBC • Mar. 27, 2025

If commoners' living standards slip—not relative to the elites, but relative to what they had before—they accept the overtures of the counter-elites and start oiling the axles of their tumbrels.

From Salon • Jan. 9, 2023

Blobs of oil washed ashore, oiling birds and shuttering the famed shoreline of Huntington Beach for a week.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 2, 2021

He was not sure he wanted to have one of those conversations so many Biafrans had now, passing kernels of blame to others, oiling their own faces with a valor they had never had.

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie