scold

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“
He is so fixed on not seeming like a presidential flirt that he risks coming across as a bit of a righteous tease or a high-minded scold, which is exactly what his book is, a high-minded scolding.

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. transitive verb To reprimand or criticize harshly and usually angrily.
  2. intransitive verb To reprove or criticize openly.
  3. noun One who persistently nags or criticizes: "As a critic gets older, he or she usually grows more tetchy and . . . may even become a big-league scold” (James Wolcott).
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Examples (50)

  • He is so fixed on not seeming like a presidential flirt that he risks coming across as a bit of a righteous tease or a high-minded scold, which is exactly what his book is, a high-minded scolding. —  donkey o.d.
  • She came across like a scold, and Powers didn't take the bait. —  Buffalo Pundit
  • Sumach had a notoriety as a scold, and one or two crones, like the She Bear, had come out with the party, most probably as the conservators of its decency and moral discipline; such things occurring in savage as well as in civilized life. —  The Deerslayer
  • In meeter scold, and in scann'd order brawl, —  The Lucasta Poems
  • He had the tongue of a common scold, and he used it with malevolent abandon. —  Rainbow's End
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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scold:   scolds ·  scolding ·  scolded
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English scolden, to be abusive, from scolde, an abusive person, probably of Scandinavian origin; see sekw-3 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also scould, scoule; Scots scald, scauld; from Middle English scolden, from Middle Dutch scheldan (preterit schold), scold, = OFries. skelda, schelda = Middle Low German Low German schelden = Old High German sceltan, Middle High German schëlten, German schelten (preterit schalt, past participle gescholten), scold, revile; prob. orig. ‘goad,’ more literally push, shove, from Old High German scaltan, Middle High German G. schalten = Old Saxon skaldan, push, shove. The word can hardly be connected with Icelandic skjalla (preterit skal, past participle skollinn), clash, clatter, slam, make a noise, = German schallen, resound, or with the deriv. Icelandic skella, clash, clatter, = Swedish skälla, bark at, abuse, = Danish skjælde, abuse.
  2. Early modern English also scould, scoule; from scold, v.
 

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/skoʊld/
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