1
as in pushes
to apply force to (someone or something) so that it moves in front of one
I had to keep shoving my heavy suitcase as I slowly made my way to the head of the line
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in presses
to push steadily against with some force
quit shoving your hand in my face
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of shoves
Elizabeth Preston, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
When Arthur tries to stop the stranger who has invaded his home from rifling through his drawers, Frank shoves the frail man to the ground.
—Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 29 Oct. 2025
Nguyen Nik Bonitto shoves the Jets' left tackle back into Justin Fields and Zach Allen crunches him from the interior on that third-down floater.
—Joe Nguyen, Denver Post, 12 Oct. 2025
After being discovered, the woman shoves Lo's head into the wall, knocking her unconscious, and locks her away in a storage room deep within the yacht.
—Keith Langston, PEOPLE, 11 Oct. 2025
Hothead follows, and, when the lawyer staggers out to take a leak, Hothead shoves a gardening fork through his neck.
—Jo Livingstone, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
Upon hearing those words, the protestor turns around quickly and his chest makes contact with Burchett, who then shoves him with both hands.
—Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 9 Sep. 2025
Klára tries to keep him away but Berend, a sweaty, sour beast of a man who wears a permanent scowl, insistently shoves his way into the household.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 28 Aug. 2025
Verb
Around the summer solstice the alligator mother shoves vegetation from her wetland habitat into a pile to create a nest.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for shoves
Verb
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Kenya licensed 42 new digital lenders, raising the country’s total number to 195, as the central bank pushes to formalize a sector that has become an important part of East Africa’s largest economy.—
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The financial asset label pushes prediction markets toward the exclusive jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a federal agency, and grants immunity from state gambling laws and taxes on gross betting revenue.—
Verb
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Long-standing geological evidence from Antarctica and elsewhere around the world shows that as ice melts and flows off the land, the land itself rises because the ice no longer presses it down.—
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But as any reader knows, the life ruining is the point, and Red Rising is a book that Abughazaleh presses into a lot of people’s hands.—
Verb
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When the temperature drops below 32 degrees and a glowing snowflake on the dashboard warns of icy roads, my car practically drives itself to Lighthouse Tofu in Annandale.—
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Those near misses helped extend Ole Miss drives at times.—
Verb
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The Cosmic Pathway compresses 13 billion years of history into a single 360-foot-long ramp.—
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The new system compresses that capability into a device spanning just a few square centimeters, without sacrificing power, pulse duration, or bandwidth.—
Cite this Entry
“Shoves.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shoves. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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