REPROVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does reprove mean? 

• REPROVE (verb)
  The verb REPROVE has 1 sense:

1. take to task

  Familiarity information: REPROVE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REPROVE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they reprove    ... he / she / it reproves   
Past simple: reproved   
Past participle: reproved   
-ing form: reproving   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take to task

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

admonish; reproof; reprove

Context example:

He admonished the child for his bad behavior

Hypernyms (to "reprove" is one way to...):

criticise; criticize; knock; pick apart (find fault with; express criticism of; point out real or perceived flaws)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

reproval (an act or expression of criticism and censure)

reprover (someone who finds fault or imputes blame)

 Context examples 

"It is not a nice habit, you know," she reproved.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Jo does use such slang words!" observed Amy, with a reproving look at the long figure stretched on the rug.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was as if I had seen her admiringly and tenderly embracing Dora, and tacitly reproving me, by her considerate protection, for my hot haste in fluttering that little heart.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She felt reproved.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Then, remembering Colonel Brandon, reproved herself, felt that to HIS sufferings and his constancy far more than to his rival's, the reward of her sister was due, and wished any thing rather than Mrs. Willoughby's death.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

His mother represented power; and as he grew older he felt this power in the sharper admonishment of her paw; while the reproving nudge of her nose gave place to the slash of her fangs.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received: no one had reproved John for wantonly striking me; and because I had turned against him to avert farther irrational violence, I was loaded with general opprobrium.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Her heart was grieved for a state which seemed but the more pitiable from this sort of irritation of spirits, inconsistency of action, and inequality of powers; and it mortified her that she was given so little credit for proper feeling, or esteemed so little worthy as a friend: but she had the consolation of knowing that her intentions were good, and of being able to say to herself, that could Mr. Knightley have been privy to all her attempts of assisting Jane Fairfax, could he even have seen into her heart, he would not, on this occasion, have found any thing to reprove.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Item, that upon brother Ambrose reproving him for this blasphemous wish, he did hold the said brother face downwards over the piscatorium or fish-pond for a space during which the said brother was able to repeat a pater and four aves for the better fortifying of his soul against impending death.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)