verb
censure severely or angrily
-
The mother scolded the child for entering a stranger's car
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The deputy ragged the Prime Minister
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The customer dressed down the waiter for bringing cold soup
• Syn:
↑call on the carpet, ↑take to task, ↑rebuke, ↑rag, ↑trounce, ↑reproof, ↑lecture, ↑reprimand, ↑jaw, ↑dress down, ↑call down, ↑scold, ↑chide, ↑berate, ↑bawl out, ↑remonstrate, ↑chew up, ↑have words, ↑lambaste, ↑lambast
• Derivationally related forms:
↑chiding (for: ↑chide), ↑scolder (for: ↑scold), ↑scolding (for: ↑scold), ↑reprimand (for: ↑reprimand), ↑lecture (for: ↑lecture), ↑reproof (for: ↑reproof), ↑rebuker (for: ↑rebuke), ↑rebuke (for: ↑rebuke)
• Hypernyms: ↑knock, ↑criticize, ↑criticise, ↑pick apart
• Hyponyms:
• Verb Frames:
-
Somebody ——s somebody
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Somebody ——s PP
(for: ↑have words)-
Somebody ——s PP
(for: ↑remonstrate)-
Sam cannot chew out Sue
* * *
transitive verbsome niggling Quartermaster lieutenant chewed them out because they were a few hundred cases short — A.J.Leibling
watched him chew out an umpire — Time
* * *
chew out (informal)
To tell off, reprimand
• • •
Main Entry: ↑chew
* * *
ˌchew ˈout [transitive] [present tense I/you/we/they chew out he/she/it chews out present participle chewing out past tense chewed out past participle chewed out] american informal phrasal verb
to speak angrily to someone because they have done something wrong
Thesaurus: to say something, or to speak to someone in an angry waysynonym
Main entry: chew
* * *
chew out [phrasal verb]
chew (someone) out or chew out (someone) US, informal : to speak in an angry and critical way to (someone)
I got chewed out [=reprimanded] for leaving early.
• • •
Main Entry: ↑chew
Useful english dictionary. 2012.