How to Use rely on/upon in a Sentence

rely on/upon

phrasal verb
  • Can the 49ers rely on Moody to make a clutch kick with a championship on the line?
    — Joseph Dycus, The Mercury News, 9 Feb. 2024
  • The judge must rely on her wits, strength and skill to find a way to end the standoff, save the hostages and fight her way out.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 26 June 2023
  • Most Gazans live in refugee camps and rely on U.N. rations.
    — Bryan Pietsch, Washington Post, 9 Oct. 2023
  • In fact, so many travelers rely on it that more than 3,000 were sold in the last month.
    — Katie Jackson, Travel + Leisure, 23 June 2024
  • The Houthis rely on pirates for smuggling oil and weapons, Ahmed said.
    — Soham Mitra, Lou Robinson and Patrick Gallagher, CNN, 22 Feb. 2025
  • Two of the four charges in the case before the Supreme Court Thursday rely on portions of the same statute at issue in that case.
    — USA TODAY, 24 Apr. 2024
  • For the Armstrong family’s side of the story, Chim had to rely on the public record.
    — Chris Klimek, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 May 2023
  • Few teams rely on the 3 more than the undersized Grizzlies.
    — The San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Mar. 2025
  • The Dolphins will likely have to rely on Duck to help limit the Adams-Wilson pair.
    — Pierre Taylor, Miami Herald, 4 Jan. 2025
  • Unlike the Instant Pot, the Dream Cooker doesn’t rely on a ton of presets.
    — Carina Finn, Bon Appétit, 5 Jan. 2024
  • Tolver said players don’t have to rely on companies to come to them.
    — Kirk Kenney, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 June 2023
  • The remaining players will therefore have to rely on their instincts to know whether there is still a traitor left in the game.
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 2 Jan. 2025
  • South Korea and Japan rely on China for more than 90 percent of their graphite needs.
    — Lily Kuo, Washington Post, 29 Nov. 2023
  • Not having someone to rely on can drive up trips to the emergency room, the survey found.
    — Byalexa Mikhail, Fortune Well, 15 Nov. 2023
  • One way to incite fear is to rely on stereotypes, experts say.
    — Kiara Alfonseca, ABC News, 7 July 2023
  • Many of us rely on the app for news, activism and entertainment.
    — Marium Zahra, Sun Sentinel, 2 July 2024
  • But few rely on it to ensure safety in relation to the core function of their app.
    — Khadijah Khogeer, NBC News, 19 July 2023
  • After adult salmon have spawned and died off in the fall, the Yurok people rely on the long, ugly fish for sustenance in the winter months.
    — oregonlive, 17 June 2023
  • The Hoover CleanSlate Plus, unlike many of the other picks on our list of best steam cleaners, doesn’t rely on just water to clean.
    — Paige Bennett, Better Homes & Gardens, 7 July 2023
  • She’s had to rely on her 401(k) retirement savings to support her and her son more than once.
    — Nicole Goodkind, CNN, 2 Apr. 2024
  • There is a reason Smith does not have a solid statutory crime to rely on.
    — The Editors, National Review, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Imagine trying to make anyone feel bad that can't provide a yard of their own and has to rely on public parks.
    — Brenton Blanchet, Peoplemag, 2 Aug. 2023
  • The script had no dialogue The Blair Witch Project didn’t rely on a conventional script.
    — Maddie Garfinkle, Peoplemag, 30 July 2024
  • While the numbers this year may be smaller, many voters have embraced mail voting and come to rely on it.
    — David Sharp, Chicago Tribune, 16 Sep. 2024
  • But others, like the city of San Diego, rely on the authority for as much as 90 percent of their water.
    — David Garrick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Apr. 2024
  • With limited power, food and water, the crew had to rely on the Lunar Module, which was meant for the moon landing, as a lifeboat.
    — Maddie Garfinkle, Peoplemag, 5 Sep. 2024
  • ICBMs rely on booster rockets to blast them through the Earth’s atmosphere.
    — Ramin Skibba, WIRED, 14 Aug. 2023
  • Instead, the pair of students used a trigonometric rule called the Law of Sines, which does not rely on the Pythagorean theorem.
    — Alexa Robles-Gil, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Oct. 2024
  • Pitching should be a strength around Naperville this season as multiple teams rely on returning starters and talented newcomers.
    — Matt Le Cren, Chicago Tribune, 17 Mar. 2025
  • Whatever President Donald Trump does, the consequences will be significant for older adults and younger people with disabilities who rely on Medicare for their health care.
    — Howard Gleckman, Forbes, 18 Mar. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rely on/upon.' 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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