hew to
phrasal verb
hewed to; hewed to or hewn to; hewing to; hews to
US
: to follow or obey (something)
Everyone must hew to the rules/standards.
He is a politician who has always hewed closely to the party line.
Examples of hew to in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Where Capote diverged was in wanting to create a nonfiction narrative that in attention to style, character, atmosphere, voice, and pacing would display all the hallmarks of the finest fiction, while hewing to the facts.
—
Literary Hub, 12 Jan. 2026
As a substitute, the board selected local architect William Pereira, who, never fully at ease with a modernist idiom, hewed to the middlebrow tastes and conservative politics of California’s philanthropic parvenus.
—Michaëla De Lacaze Mohrmann, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2026
The outfit nodded to early aughts dressing while hewing to the more polished, stealthy-chic vibe of right now.
—Christian Allaire, Vogue, 10 Dec. 2025
To seek out life-saving medicines beyond their borders, or to hew to their backwards-looking ideals?
—Hazlitt, 3 Dec. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Hew to.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hew%20to. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
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