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incumbent
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

incumbent as in:  the incumbent governor

She had to defeat an incumbent governor to win.
incumbent = then holding office
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  • She was more suited to running as an outsider than she is to defending her office as an incumbent.
    incumbent = someone who currently holds an official position
  • Barbarians and urbanites, incumbents and rebels, masters and slaves — all forget their differences and make common cause.  (source)
    incumbents = people holding positions of power
  • Ex-nun, and incumbent baby grandaunt.  (source)
    incumbent = someone who currently holds an official position
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
  • Splashed across the screen was election coverage: the race between the incumbent district attorney and his challenger, the dean of students at Harvard Law School, a man named Logan Rourke.  (source)
    incumbent = person holding an official position
  • Incumbents and front-runners obviously have more cash, but they only spend a lot of it when they stand a legitimate chance of losing; otherwise, why dip into a war chest that might be more useful later on, when a more formidable opponent appears?  (source)
    Incumbents = people who currently hold office
  • Much and deservedly to my own discredit, therefore, and considerably to the detriment of my official conscience, they continued, during my incumbency, to creep about the wharves, and loiter up and down the Custom-House steps.  (source)
    incumbency = term in an official position
  • Between incumbencies of Finn maids from the North Woods, Germans from the prairies, occasional Swedes and Norwegians and Icelanders, Carol did her own work—and endured Aunt Bessie's skittering in to tell her how to dampen a broom for fluffy dust, how to sugar doughnuts, how to stuff a goose.†  (source)
  • But eight years ago, when I was running for D.A. for the first time against a powerful incumbent and I needed money the way a fat kid needs cake, that sorry SOB that owned the Mouse's Tail gave my opponent five thousand in cash as a campaign contribution.  (source)
    incumbent = person holding an elected position
  • But incumbents generally have the upper hand, so no worries.  (source)
    incumbents = people who currently hold office
  • I met the present incumbent a few times earlier in the year, and she told me that Falk lives in some geriatric home in Hedestad.  (source)
    incumbent = person holding an official position
  • When Faye came down from Sacramento and opened her house there was a flurry of animosity from the two incumbents.  (source)
    incumbents = people currently running houses that would compete
  • With Congress out of session, with the tide running strongly against the incumbent Democrats, there appeared to be no necessity for the Senator to make more than the usual campaign utterances on the usual issues.  (source)
    incumbent = currently holding office
  • The whole were grouped in a manner that aped the streets of a city, and were evidently so arranged by the directions of one who looked to the wants of posterity rather than to the convenience of the present incumbents.†  (source)
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incumbent as in:  incumbent upon her to

It's incumbent upon her to clean up the mess she created.
incumbent = necessary as a responsibility
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • It is incumbent on them to pay their own debts.
  • He nodded gravely, and added with awful emphasis - "I thought it incumbent upon me to do so."†  (source)
  • Heyward felt it had now become incumbent on him to act.†  (source)
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  • Lorry felt it incumbent on him to speak a word or two of reassurance.†  (source)
  • But it was incumbent upon her to go on now.†  (source)
  • There was a moment's pause, and then Archer felt it incumbent on him to say: "All right."†  (source)
  • Of course, while we drank our beer, which I had paid for, it was incumbent on him to listen to me and to talk to me.†  (source)
  • He had a bad feeling about this parting; he didn't know when they would next see each other and he felt it was incumbent upon him to say something to Sirius to stop him doing anything stupid.  (source)
    incumbent = required as a responsibility
  • Mohammed’s accomplishments implied—proved, really—that the Zeitouns were extraordinary. It was incumbent, thereafter, on each and every child to live up to that legacy.  (source)
    incumbent = expected as a responsibility
  • "He ain't as yellow as he was," Joe said, feeling that it was incumbent on him to take up for July a little bit, since July would never take up for himself.  (source)
    incumbent = necessary as a duty or responsibility
  • I see that you understand the gravity of the situation, so I will say this only once: you bear full responsibility for this girl's doom, and, because of the wrong you did her, it is incumbent upon you to help her if ever the opportunity should arise.  (source)
  • The incumbent hazards lent the activity a seriousness of purpose that was sorely missing from the rest of my life.  (source)
    incumbent = required (for the activity)
  • Jefferson also said, "It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes."  (source)
    incumbent = expected as a responsibility
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