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scold - 6 dictionary results

scold

  [skohld]
Use scold in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to find fault with angrily; chide; reprimand: The teacher scolded me for being late.
–verb (used without object)
2. to find fault; reprove.
3. to use abusive language.
–noun
4. a person who is constantly scolding, often with loud and abusive speech.
5. common scold.
Origin:
1150–1200; (n.) ME, var. of scald < ON skald poet (as author of insulting poems); see skald; (v.) ME scolden, deriv. of the n.

Related forms:
scold⋅a⋅ble, adjective
scolder, noun
scold⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
1. reprove; censure. See reproach.

Antonyms:
1. praise.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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scold   (skōld)   
v.   scold·ed, scold·ing, scolds

v.   tr.
To reprimand or criticize harshly and usually angrily.
v.   intr.
To reprove or criticize openly.
n.  One who persistently nags or criticizes: "As a critic gets older, he or she usually grows more tetchy and . . . may even become a big-league scold" (James Wolcott).

[Middle English scolden, to be abusive, from scolde, an abusive person, probably of Scandinavian origin; see sekw-3 in Indo-European roots.]
scold'er n., scold'ing·ly adv.
Synonyms: These verbs mean to reprimand or criticize angrily or vehemently. Scold implies reproof: parents who scolded their child for being rude.
Upbraid generally suggests a well-founded reproach, as one leveled by an authority: upbraided by the supervisor for habitual tardiness.
Berate suggests scolding or rebuking at length: an angry customer who berated the clerk.
Revile and vituperate especially stress the use of disparaging or abusive language: critics who reviled the novel as unsophisticated pulp. "The incensed priests . . . continued to raise their voices, vituperating each other in bad Latin" (Sir Walter Scott).
Rail suggests bitter, harsh, or denunciatory language: "Why rail at fate? The mischief is your own" (John Greenleaf Whittier).

Word History: A scold is not usually a poet and a scolding rarely sounds like poetry to the one being scolded, but it seems that the word scold has a poetic background. It is probable that scold, first recorded in Middle English in a work probably composed around 1150, has a Scandinavian source related to the Old Icelandic word skāld, "poet." Middle English scolde may in fact mean "a minstrel," but of that we are not sure. However, its Middle English meanings, "a ribald abusive person" and "a shrewish chiding woman," may be related to skāld, as shown by the senses of some of the Old Icelandic words derived from skāld. Old Icelandic skāldskapr, for example, meant "poetry" in a good sense but also "a libel in verse," while skāld-stöng meant "a pole with imprecations or charms scratched on it." It would seem that libelous cursing verse was a noted part of at least some poets' productions and that this association with poets passed firmly along with the Scandinavian borrowing into English.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Scold

Scold\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Scolded; p. pr. & vb. n. Scolding.] [Akin to D. schelden, G. schelten, OHG. sceltan, Dan. skielde.] To find fault or rail with rude clamor; to brawl; to utter harsh, rude, boisterous rebuke; to chide sharply or coarsely; -- often with at; as, to scold at a servant.

Pardon me, lords, 't is the first time ever I was forced to scold. --Shak.

Scold

Scold\, v. t. To chide with rudeness and clamor; to rate; also, to rebuke or reprove with severity.

Scold

Scold\, n. 1. One who scolds, or makes a practice of scolding; esp., a rude, clamorous woman; a shrew.

She is an irksome, brawling scold. --Shak.

2. A scolding; a brawl.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : scold
Spanish: reñir, regañar,
German: ausschelten,
Japanese: 叱る
More Translations »

scold  (n.)
c.1150, "person of ribald speech," also "person fond of abusive language," from O.N. skald "poet" (see skald). The sense evolution may reflect the fact that Gmc. poets (like their Celtic counterparts) were famously feared for their ability to lampoon and mock (e.g. skaldskapr "poetry," also, in Icelandic law books, "libel in verse"). From the beginning, used especially of women. The verb is attested from 1377.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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