Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To reprove; censure. See Synonyms at criticize.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To charge with a fault; chide sharply; reprove: formerly sometimes followed by of.
- To take exception to; speak of as a fault; censure.
- To convict of fallacy.
- Synonyms To blame, rebuke, reprimand, upbraid. See admonition.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To reprove or reprimand with a view of restraining, checking, or preventing; to make charge of fault against; to disapprove of; to chide; to blame; to censure.
WordNet 3.0
- v. express strong disapproval of
Etymologies
- From Latin reprehendere ("to hold back, check, blame"), from re- ("back") + prehendere ("to hold, seize"). Confer French reprendre ("to reprove"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English reprehenden, from Latin reprehendere : re-, re- + prehendere, to seize; see ghend- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Palmerston, who expressed himself as "extremely flattered and highly gratified" by the references to himself, did not in terms reprehend the language used of the two Sovereigns, and added, in a phrase immortalised by Leech's cartoon, that”
“The modification of old-fashioned rules in this regard has made the lines faint, it is true, and there is no book on etiquette that does not reprehend as “unbecoming a gentleman” smoking in drawing-rooms, boudoirs, dining-rooms, restaurants, where now men not only are allowed, and invited, to smoke, but where highly respectable women have been known to join them.”
“Gentles, do not reprehend: with Hero Histories, we will mend:”
This is the End My Friends | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News
“But above all, Sir Anthony, she should be mistress of orthodoxy, that she might not misspell and mispronounce words so shamefully as girls usually do; and likewise that she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying.”
The Huffington Post: Tallulah Morehead: Big Brother 12: (Mala)Props to the Houseguests.
“But it's odd that we have to step outside of the language of public life when we want to express authentic indignation or forcefully reprehend somebody simply for being bad, which, while I'm at it, is another word that Dickens took a lot more seriously than we do.”
“Indiana, now, was preparing to scream, and Miss Margland was looking round to see whom she should reprehend; but young Westwyn, coolly opening the door, with a strong arm, and an able jerk, twisted the perfumer into the passage, saying, 'You may send somebody for your goods.”
“And that such as have a great and false opinion of their own wisdom take upon them to reprehend the actions and call in question the authority of them that govern, and so to unsettle the laws with their public discourse, as that nothing shall be a crime but what their own designs require should be so.”
“To reprehend princes is dangerous; and to over-commend some of them is palpable lying.”
“XIV., would not meet with a very gentle reception from the learned; he who is disposed to reprehend Virgil for having described King”
“In such esteem it continued for many ages, till at length Mesue and some other Arabians began to reject and reprehend it, upon whose authority for many following lustres, it was much debased and quite out of request, held to be poison and no medicine; and is still oppugned to this day by [4225] Crato and some junior physicians.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘reprehend’.
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Do That Again! ~~ "Re-verbs"
List of verbs that begin with re-, meaning to repeat a specific action or process - reappraise, for example.
I'm also looking for words like repeat, replenish and rescind whose roots d...repeat, rescind, reappraise, refinish, restripe, reapply, resupply, refurbish, reposition, reoffend, redistribute, recoat and 202 more...
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
rya, rutilant, ruthful, rutherford, ruth, rusticity, rusticate, Russophobia, Russophile, russet, russel, rushlight and 514 more...
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Censure (v.)
Someone must have had an inferiority complex.
vituperate, vilify, trounce, traduce, slander, scold, revile, reprove, reprimand, reprehend, remonstrate, rebuke and 37 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Citicize/Criticism
belittle, berate, calumny, castigate, decry, defamation, disparage, excoriate, gainsay, harangue, impugn, inveigh and 9 more...
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Monovocalics
Words that have only one of the vowels. On this list I include only words with at least three vowels. When I first started the list, if a word had several forms, I generally listed only the one wit...
syzygy, mirific, cumulus, homolog, monocot, bedewed, jezebel, referee, bikini, minikin, locomotor, terebenthene and 2359 more...
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Critischism
Divisive devices; emissary of Momus.
peevology, pessimize, philippic, philopolemic, billingsgate, charientism, criticaster, ludification, flyting, miserabilism, misprize, admonish and 145 more...
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Scold
scold vehemently
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words
words
spartan, cram, quill, furor, rampart, enervate, placate, agitate, galvanize, spur, pricker, infuriate and 273 more...
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Theorie: The Madwoman's Underclothes
'The Madwoman's Underclothes' book is a collection of writings by Germaine Greer from 1968 to 1985. The title refers to what she sees as being the media's obsession with her going bra-less. Warning...
homespun, shuck, flyte, animadversion, groover, tom jones, fucker, cocksman, sweety-sharp, goatman, ha-ha, corridor of power and 84 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for reprehend.
ruzuzu Thank you.
*curtseys* Oct 17, 2012
fbharjo It is a misprision as in this Century definition: n. More loosely, any grave offense or misdemeanor having no recognized fixed name, as maladministration in an office of public trust: also termed positive misprision, as distinguished from negative misprision, or mere neglect or concealment.
Your emprise into the Century dictionary is much appreciated, Ruzuzu.
It shouldn't be forgotten. I guess I never know what it will beget, and that is often a surprise!
*NB I am playing with different derivations of the Indo-European root ghend- ! It seized me.* Oct 17, 2012
ruzuzu I like this definition from the Century: "To convict of fallacy." Oct 17, 2012
bilby "I have just done rather an odd thing. Indeed, I have been casting about in my mind for a mode in which to convey its oddness, and I decided I had better ask you to imagine a civilization in which eating had ceased almost altogether. Moreover, it was officially reprehended, as a sort of bestial regression."
- 'The Expense Of Spirit', Germaine Greer in Sunday Times, 1971. Apr 6, 2008