Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To assail with abusive language; vituperate. See Synonyms at scold.
- v. To use abusive language.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To cast reproach upon; vilify; especially, to use contemptuous or opprobrious language to; abuse; asperse.
- Synonyms To vilify, abuse, malign, lampoon, defame. (See asperse.) The distinction of revile from these words is that it always applies to persons, is generally unjust and always improper, generally applies to what is said to or before the person affected, and makes him seem to others vile or worthless.
- To act or speak abusively.
- n. Revilement; abusive treatment or language; an insult; a reproach.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To address or abuse with opprobrious and contemptuous language; to reproach.
- n. obsolete Reproach; reviling.
WordNet 3.0
- v. spread negative information about
Etymologies
- From Middle English revilen, from re + Old French aviler ("to make vile or cheap, disprize, disesteem"), from a- ("to") + vil ("vile, cheap"); see vile. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English revilen, from Old French reviler : re-, re- + vil, vile; see vile. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“One that I particularly revile is “blood and treasure,” a favorite of warrior-politics neocons.”
“NEW YORK Here's good news for New York Yankees fans — and bad news for those who revile the club as the Evil Empire: The richest club in baseball is about to get richer.”
Despite financial crisis, new stadium, Yankees prosper in 2009
“The negation of the negation is something like faith revealed as lies (which is why we revile hypocritical priests and pastors so very much).”
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Plotting for the Severely Right Brained
“This does not mean I am against coursebooks or that I feel that using a coursebook page, albeit more creatively, is something I revile.”
“Why do you think God may have called any of these persons you so quickly dismiss and revile into ordained ministry or guided a Synod to vote for them?”
Anglican Church of Canada is hawking the silverware « Anglican Samizdat
“Casse continues: Mr. Caplan also claims that voters revile a corporation that downsizes at home and sends jobs abroad, a business decision that most economists view as socially productive.”
Do Voters' Biases Bias Policy?, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“It is these Right Wing talk show hosts who incessantly revile the federal bureaucrats as devils incarnate issuing unnecessary economy-strangling regulations merely to solidify their own continued employment.”
The Huffington Post: Edward Flattau: Environmental Masochism
“Some of us admire them, some revile them, but most people can't imagine joining their ranks.”
The Huffington Post: Jay Walljasper: Why Biking Is More Patriotic Than Flag Waving
“Freedom of women is what the Al Qaeda jihadis, as much as the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, most revile about the West.”
The Huffington Post: Nina Burleigh: Egypt and the Universal Rights of Women
“With so much evidence piled up that the status of women in the West is what radical Islamist fighters revile most about us, the only question left is why haven't the Western countries made support of women a fundamental element of the diplomatic, military and political response?”
The Huffington Post: Nina Burleigh: Egypt and the Universal Rights of Women
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘revile’.
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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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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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The Blacklist
Stop SOPA.
blackout, redact, bowdlerize, censor, remove, conceal, bleach, bleep, blue-pencil, control, edit, excise and 24 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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Filter 1
Hard words level 1
besotted, altricial, consecrate, consternate, desuetude, detractor, dissolute, divisive, emaciated, enamored, ensconce, garishly and 76 more...
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try to use now and then
exacerbate, inveterate, obviate, verbose, exasperate, disingenuous, squit, ingenue, Opiate, opioid, revile, decrepit and 14 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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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 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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Why We Curse: WTF?
This list collects the magnificent collection of vocabulary of the article "What the F***? Why We Curse," by Steven Pinker, in The New Republic (Oct. 2007). I think I'm more impressed with the coll...
curse, language, earthy, ancient, unthinkable, thinkable, emotional, rhyme, meter, alliteration, pleasure, metaphor and 196 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL R
rabid, raconteur, rail, rambunctious, ramification, rampant, rancor, rancorous, range, rankle, ransack, rapacious and 112 more...
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madamepsychosis's Words
mollify, salubrious, prandial, coup de grace, ineluctable, metempsychosis, pedant, conatus, oeuvre, laconic, solipsism, vapid and 265 more...
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My List
A list of words that I have generated over time.
cairn, cacodaemoniacal, abash, abject, abjure, abstemious, abhor, abnegate, abnegation, abscond, abstruse, acclivity and 702 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for revile.
yarb The bone commenced to revile the fox. "You coward!" it sneered. "You odoriferous wretch!"
- William Steig, The Amazing Bone Sep 29, 2008