Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To reprove sharply; reproach. See Synonyms at scold.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To reproach for some fault or offense; charge reproachfully; reproach: regularly followed by with or for (rarely of) before the thing imputed.
- To offer as an accusation or charge against some person or thing: with to before the person or thing blamed.
- Specifically, to reprove with severity; chide.
- To bring reproach on; be a reproach to.
- To make a subject of reproach or chiding.
- Synonyms Mock, Flout, etc. See taunt.
- To utter upbraidings or reproaches.
- n. The act of upbraiding; reproach; contumely; abuse.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete The act of reproaching; contumely.
- v. transitive To criticize severely.
- v. archaic To charge with something wrong or disgraceful; to reproach; to cast something in the teeth of; – followed by with or for, and formerly of, before the thing imputed.
- v. To reprove severely; to rebuke; to chide.
- v. obsolete To treat with contempt.
- v. obsolete To object or urge as a matter of reproach; to cast up; – with to before the person.
- v. archaic, intransitive To utter upbraidings.
- v. Northern England To rise on the stomach; vomit; retch.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To charge with something wrong or disgraceful; to reproach; to cast something in the teeth of; -- followed by
with orfor , and formerlyof , before the thing imputed. - v. To reprove severely; to rebuke; to chide.
- v. obsolete To treat with contempt.
- v. obsolete To object or urge as a matter of reproach; to cast up; -- with
to before the person. - v. To utter upbraidings.
- n. obsolete The act of reproaching; contumely.
WordNet 3.0
- v. express criticism towards
Etymologies
- Old English upbreiden, from upp ("up") + bregdan ("to draw, twist, weave; the kindred"); Icelandic bregða ("to draw, brandish, braid, deviate from, change, break off, upbraid"). See up, and braid (transitive). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English upbreiden, from Old English ūpbrēdan, to bring forward as a ground for censure : ūp-, up- + bregdan, to turn, lay hold of. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Let critic folk the poet's use of vulgar slang upbraid,”
“Politicians and economists report that European counterparts who formerly criticised them for being too hard on the euro now upbraid them for being too soft.”
The Guardian: The eurozone: it's a pyrrhic victory for the eurosceptics | Nick Cohen
“I roll in and she fails to introduce me, so I take her aside and upbraid her for this transgression.”
“Mapuhi relieved his feelings by sending her reeling from a box on the ear; while Tefara and Nauri burst into tears and continued to upbraid him after the manner of women.”
“Even though he was not the producer of Nine, some of the council members began to upbraid him about the fact that there were no African-Americans in the cast of Nine.”
The Huffington Post: Howard Kissel: The War Between Dream Girls and Nine
“And then, that same candidate will put out an ad making perfectly generic critiques of his or her opponent -- which the media will hysterically then upbraid.”
The Huffington Post: Remember, Candidates: The Media Won't Let You Keep Your "Civility Pledge"
“The truth is that the Republican rivals really can't upbraid Romney for his business record because it would put them at odds with the philosophy of the Republican party.”
The Guardian: New Hampshire Republican debate - live: Mitt Romney versus the rest
“But why should I have to, in this day and age, upbraid a woman who looked to be a reasonably intelligent and otherwise respectable member of the country's upper middle class?”
Global Voices in English » Trinidad & Tobago: Are We Really Independent?
“It's one thing to upbraid an official in real-time for a wrong decision, but it loses a certain moral authority to wait until you've seen the slo-mo close-up twice to start asking how the ref could possibly have missed such a blatant foul.”
“Gaby Rodriguez did nothing more than hoodwink her peers into conduct she could upbraid them for later.”
The Huffington Post: Edward Wasserman: Sex, Lies and the Teen Pregnancy That Never Was
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘upbraid’.
-
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...
-
GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
-
EN - archaic words
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 328 more...
-
words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 135 more...
-
501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
-
501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
-
501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
-
Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
-
LIT - Iliad - key words and protagonists
depict, delegation, daughter, Dardanus, Dardanian, Dardan, Hellespont, cupbearer, Crete, Cretan, Creon, copulate and 713 more...
-
man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1834 more...
-
Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
-
Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
-
ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for upbraid.

Noelle Knight "I didn't want to argue with Bill, or upbraid him for his unfaithfulness." -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris Feb 5, 2011