rebuke

A harsh criticism.

Noun

  1. A harsh criticism.
    • There was the sternness of an old-fashioned Tour patron in his rebuke to the young Frenchman Pierre Rolland, the only one to ride away from the peloton and seize the opportunity for a lone attack before being absorbed...
    • U.S. Vice President JD Vance met Saturday with the Vatican's No. 2 official, following a remarkable papal rebuke of the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrants and Vance’s theological justification of it. - 2025...
    • With his emphasis on accepting the science (he was a trained chemist) – and hence his stern rebuke to the climate change deniers and the politicians who courted them – he even managed to reset the relationship between...

Origin

From Middle English rebuken, from Anglo-Norman rebuker (“to beat back, repel”), from re- + Old French *buker, buchier, buschier (“to strike, hack down, chop”), from busche (“wood”), from Vulgar Latin *busca (“wood, grove”), from Frankish *busk (“grove”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush”); equivalent to re- + bush.

Forms

rebukes

Synonyms

reproach reproof reproval reprehension reprimand admonition

Derived

rebukeful

Verb

  1. To criticise harshly; to reprove.
    • O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath. - 2011, Biblica, Holy Bible: New International Version, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, →ISBN, 6:(please specify the verse(s)):
    • When Morrison mulls the pluses and minuses associated with rebuking Kelly for undermining the government’s public health messaging, the prime minister faces a genuine substantive dilemma, and that goes to the risks of...

    Synonyms: reprimand reproach reprove reprehend admonish animadvert bash bawl out slash lash blame scorch blast berate berisp castigate censure charge chastise chew out chide condemn criticize denounce

Forms

rebukes rebuking rebuked

Derived

rebukable rebukeful rebukement rebuker rebukingly unrebuked unrebuking