Word of the Day Archive
Friday September 12, 2003
inveigh \in-VAY\ , intransitive verb:
To rail (against some person or thing); to protest strongly or attack with harsh and bitter language -- usually with "against"; as, "to inveigh against character, conduct, manners, customs, morals, a law, an abuse."
It is my intention to inveigh against what seems to be the gradual (continuing?) publishing practice of making books that are so fat and windy that they sit, with some exceptions, like hefty neglected lumps on the shelves waiting for the first clever marketer to include a backpack with their purchase.
-- Martin Arnold, "They're Bigger. But Better?", New York Times, October 28, 1999
He saved it for his preaching, when he inveighed against sin and the devil.
-- Rubem Fonseca, Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts (translated by Clifford E. Landers)
I inveighed against the landlord, who, I thought, was trying to save electricity with those weak lightbulbs, but I suspected that I might need new glasses.
-- Henry A. Grunwald, Twilight: Losing Sight, Gaining Insight
Reuther never hesitated to inveigh against "poverty, hunger, and disease."
-- Stanley Aronowitz, From the Ashes of the Old
Inveigh is from Latin invehi, "to attack with words," passive form of invehere, "to carry or bring into or against," from in-, "in, into" + vehere, "to carry."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for inveigh
