Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To express disapproval of, criticism of, or disappointment in (someone). See Synonyms at admonish.
- v. To bring shame upon; disgrace.
- n. Blame; rebuke.
- n. One that causes rebuke or blame.
- n. Disgrace; shame.
- idiom. beyond reproach So good as to preclude any possibility of criticism.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To charge with a fault; censure with severity; upbraid: now usually with a personal object.
- To disgrace.
- Synonyms Reprove, Rebuke, etc. (see censure); revile, vilify, accuse.
- n. The act of reproaching; a severe expression of censure or blame.
- n. An occasion of blame or censure, shame, infamy, or disgrace; also, the state of being subject to blame or censure; a state of disgrace.
- n. An object of contempt, scorn, or derision.
- n. Synonyms Monition, Reprehension, etc. (see admonition), blame, reviling, abuse, invective, vilification, upbraiding.
- n. Disrepute, discredit, dishonor, scandal, contumely.
Wiktionary
- n. A mild rebuke, or an implied criticism.
- n. Disgrace or shame.
- v. To criticize or rebuke someone.
- v. To disgrace, or bring shame upon someone.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To come back to, or come home to, as a matter of blame; to bring shame or disgrace upon; to disgrace.
- v. To attribute blame to; to allege something disgraceful against; to charge with a fault; to censure severely or contemptuously; to upbraid.
- n. The act of reproaching; censure mingled with contempt; contumelious or opprobrious language toward any person; abusive reflections.
- n. A cause of blame or censure; shame; disgrace.
- n. An object of blame, censure, scorn, or derision.
WordNet 3.0
- n. disgrace or shame
- n. a mild rebuke or criticism
- v. express criticism towards
Etymologies
- Old French reprochier (Modern reprocher). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English reprochen, from Old French reprochier, from Vulgar Latin *repropiāre : Latin re-, re- + Latin prope, near; see per1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A measure of the Administration's responsiveness is that the NLRB launched its assault on Boeing after the BRT provided those examples, and President Obama has refused to say a word of reproach to the agency.”
“She looked at him in reproach so deep that the last vestige of the terror of death was gone from her eyes.”
“My sense, however, is that the Pennsylvanian William Findley spoke for many others in 1796 when he said that the people who raised objections to the Constitution during the ratification struggle were “called Anti-federalists, as a name of reproach,” and then added, “I do, and always did, treat the appellation with contempt.””
“Why anybody would vote for people who want to extend government's control to be able to do this kind of thing without reproach is beyond me.”
“Not a word of reproach was said when Ali returned to the ring against Quarry and Bonavena, though the Messenger had inveighed against the evils of sports.”
“It was, as the Oxford English Dictionary later concluded, “essentially a term of reproach.””
“First, we must offer to our people in Quebec a party which is really representative of all segments of the population, and whose methods and functioning are absolutely beyond reproach from a democratic point of view.”
“Mature in virtuosity -- the modern virtuosity which goes so far beyond the mere technical mastery that once made the term a reproach -- though young in years, Jascha Heifetz, when one makes his acquaintance "off-stage," seems singularly modest about the great gifts which have brought him international fame.”
“She was like the woman in Scripture whose reproach is taken away, and who becomes a joyful mother of children when all hope is over.”
“He was ignorant of its implacable determination like every other man guileless of complicity with it, and a premature radical policy would have subjected him instantly, to the reproach from a vast majority of his countrymen, of stimulating an undeveloped”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘reproach’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
wrath, leaf, belly, prey, death, break, six, nod, dim, end, inn, judge and 1286 more...
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GRE Words R
raiment, regale, reprise, renege, reproach, reprobate, reticent, riposte, rubric, rapacious, ruffian, rote and 3 more...
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GRE Readings
conclusive, derivative, conviction, affected, ample, defiance, bid, conception, demean, converse, compliance, base and 133 more...
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Barron's 1100 words you need to know ...
abjure, allay, complacent, connoisseur, debilitate, deter, discreet, evanescent, foment, glean, impetuous, occult and 8 more...
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MyList
peter out, fraying, jump on the bandw..., indignation, eclectic, hung up, salutary, hoary, warped, glaring, blue-collar, concomitant and 105 more...
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
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Advanced Words: Part II
facetious, felicitous, grandiloquent, germane, repatriate, exigency, exculpate, etheral, fatuous, heterogeneous, hiatus, idiosyncrasy and 118 more...
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my GRE words
pedant, wizened, histrionic, logorrhea, frenetic, approbation, quibble, knell, acclivity, droog, prevarication, aplomb and 182 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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Vocab ##5
appint, monarch, counterpart, muse, bestow, unwitting, aghast, admonish, wage, decree, cavalry, phalanx and 126 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for reproach.
dailyword Holmes would do this to Watson sometimes when he thought Watson had put too much color and life into the write ups of their cases. Aug 9, 2012
asativum To proach again. Apr 26, 2008
sonofgroucho Something that I am not beyond! Apr 8, 2007