How to Use dubious in a Sentence

dubious

adjective
  • He made the highly dubious claim that Elvis is still alive and living in Hawaii.
  • To avoid fees, the new "relationship" minimum for checking accounts jumped from $2000 to as much as $6000. And what would customers get in exchange? The ability to take advantage of such a dubious new benefit as a consolidated monthly statement.
    Consumer Reports, March 1996
  • The shoes sold at $1,018 per pair, but the price is not what many critics found dubious.
    Stephanie Toone, ajc, 29 Mar. 2021
  • But even that rather dubious claim is not the real point.
    Jocelyn Noveck, Detroit Free Press, 13 Nov. 2020
  • Now all that was left was a dubious glide ratio and the promise of an open field.
    Caroline Paul, Outside Online, 11 July 2018
  • Even the kids who were dubious have come back for seconds.
    Bon Appétit Contributor, Bon Appétit, 10 Mar. 2023
  • From the start, Shea’s and Scott’s accounts seemed dubious.
    Patrick Blanchfield, The New Republic, 31 Mar. 2020
  • These claims range from the highly dubious to the patently false.
    David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 22 Oct. 2017
  • Gone are most of the shops selling cheap souvenirs and bars with cheap but dubious drinks.
    James Clark, sandiegouniontribune.com, 19 Apr. 2018
  • But his claim that windmills pose a great threat to our avian friends is dubious at best.
    Joshua Bote, USA TODAY, 18 June 2019
  • At the least, this means Trump made the dubious decision to hire a man with shadowy ties as a top aide.
    David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 19 Sep. 2017
  • Plus, the idea that wild bears could acquire a taste for felines seemed dubious to him.
    Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 5 June 2018
  • Research is still in progress, but David Ross told me he’s dubious.
    Ben Rowen, The Atlantic, 15 June 2018
  • Even the most dubious cliché of the past century — the promise that the check’s in the mail — has fallen from common usage.
    Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post, 15 Sep. 2023
  • But Williams was still dubious and blamed her for the changes Larry had imposed.
    Stephen Galloway, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Mar. 2022
  • That may not be fair, especially in a case like this where the facts are dubious at best.
    Chad Pergram, Fox News, 7 July 2018
  • So yes, there are admirable Democrats and dubious Democrats.
    Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 11 Oct. 2021
  • Rich people spend vast sums of money on things of dubious value all the time.
    New York Times, 9 Apr. 2021
  • But gambling on a craze, even a highly dubious one, can be about more than blind greed.
    The Economist, 7 Oct. 2017
  • The ethics of using prime farmland to grow fuel rather than food are dubious at best.
    Brian Barth, Smithsonian, 3 Oct. 2017
  • In terms of percentage price drops, though, the Nissan Leaf took the dubious honors, with a 30.6% year over year drop.
    Bychris Morris, Fortune, 28 Nov. 2023
  • The methods are dubious in both practice and rate of success.
    Bill Goodykoontz, Detroit Free Press, 3 Dec. 2021
  • Schulz’s murals wound up in Jerusalem in a more dubious fashion.
    Adam Kirsch, The New Republic, 6 Apr. 2023
  • Worse is when the science cited is so dubious as to be useless.
    David Robert Grimes, Scientific American, 8 Dec. 2023
  • Its claim to fame was a dubious breakthrough, sort of the down-market flip side to the Pentagon Papers.
    Peter Marks, Washington Post, 6 Sep. 2023
  • Would a waiter, if the dubious pasts of his diners were revealed, be obliged to donate his tips?
    Longreads, 3 Oct. 2017
  • The trouble is, now that these tactics are well-known, there’s nothing to stop them being used to more dubious ends.
    Olivia Goldhill, Quartz, 31 July 2019
  • An early review of one of his shows from around that time was equally dubious.
    BostonGlobe.com, 27 May 2021
  • That seed flotilla was suggested by the kitchen, said Cornils, dubious at first.
    Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 29 June 2017
  • The health benefits of many such foods remain dubious at best.
    The Economist, 1 Nov. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dubious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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