shoals

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.

So after a rewrite, Mary Richards launches her best life from the shoals of a broken engagement instead.

From Salon • Jan. 31, 2026

“It’s clear that he has navigated the fraught shoals of the bureaucratic politics of the administration effectively. He hasn’t ticked off anybody who matters, and that’s a lot by itself.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 27, 2025

Hope is always crashing against the shoals of disappointment.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 22, 2024

You wanted to be remembered as having held this institution together and steered it through the rocky shoals.

From Slate • May 28, 2024

This was one of the main shipping routes between the eastern and western Mediterranean, and it was also an extremely dangerous body of water, filled with shoals, sandbars, and suddenly shifting currents.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler