vituperate
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /vɪˈtjuːpəɹeɪt/
ipa: /vaɪ-/
ipa: /-ˈtʃuː-/
ipa: /vəˈt(j)upəˌɹeɪt/
ipa: /vaɪ-/
Forms: form: vituperates
form: vituperating
form: vituperated
form: vituperated
Etymology: PIE word
 *dwóh₁
Learned borrowing from Latin vituperātus (“censured; disparaged”), perfect passive participle of vituperō (“to blame, scold, tell off; to censure; to disparage, find fault with”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from vitium (“blemish, defect, flaw, imperfection; crime, misdeed, wrongdoing; fault, error, sin; vice; disease (of plants)”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(d)wi-tyo- (“apart; wrong”), from *dwóh₁ (“two”)) + parō (“to acquire, get, obtain, procure; to arrange, order; to contrive, design; to furnish, provide; to produce; to decide, resolve”) (from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to get, procure; to produce; to bring forward; to bring forth, carry forth; to go through”)).
Senses: examples: text: They loue not porke, nor ſwynes fleſh, but doth vituperate and abhore it, yet for all this, they will eate Adders, which is a kind of Serpentes, as well as any other Chriſtyan man dwelling in Roome, and other highe countreys, for Adders fleſhe there, is called fyſhe of the mountayne, this notwithſtanding Phiſicke doeth approbate adders fleſh good to be eaten, […]
ref: 1576, Andrewe Boord [i.e., Andrew Boorde], “Treateth of Fleshe, of Wylde, and Tame Beastes. [Porke, Brawne, Bacon, Pygge.]”, in Here Followeth a Compendious Regiment, or Dietarie of Health. […], London: […] H. Jackson, →OCLC:
text: [M]y beſt Lady, you knovv, and many better men then he have told you, that I am ſo far from vvronging you vvith a falſhood, that I have maintained your honor vvith the hazzard of my life againſt any that ever durſt vituperate you; […]
ref: 1652, S. S[heppard], “Amorous Letters. [A Gentleman Being Calumniated to a Lady (whom Perhaps He Affects) of Detracting from Her Honour, thus Vindicates Himself by Letter.]”, in The Secretaries Studie; Containing New Familiar Epistles. […], London: […] T. H. for John Harrison […], →OCLC, page 51:
text: [T]he Rites of conſecrating, or crovvning Kings, and taking Oath of them to perform the Lavvs of their Government, and to maintain the Rites of Holy Church, […] is no lame and lazy Ceremony, made up onely of extern pomp, but of neceſſary and renovvned conſequence; vvhich thoſe that vituperate are Children, and thoſe that vvould overthrovv are Devils; becauſe therein accuſers of antient Piety and Prudence, and enemies to Mankind, vvho generally have the Prieſthood in higheſt honour.
ref: 1663, Edward Waterhous[e], chapter I, in Fortescutus Illustratus; or A Commentary on that Nervous Treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, Written by Sir John Fortescue Knight, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Roycroft for Thomas Dicas […], →OCLC, page 33:
text: We are not ignorant that it has long obtained as a principle amongst writers and declaimers of a certain class, to poison as much as they can the public mind, not only by representing royalty in this nation as superfluous and ridiculous, but by vituperating, and vilifying, by every false, ridiculous, and scandalous aspersion within the compass of their gross and sterile imaginations, the person, conduct, public and domestic pursuits of our most gracious monarch.
ref: 1795 October 31 – November 15, “Observations on the Insults Offered to the Person of His Majesty, in His Way to and Return from the House of Lords”, in The Register of the Times, or, Political Museum: […], volume VII, London: […] C[harles] Whittingham, for B. Crosby, […], →OCLC, page 137, column 1:
text: ['T]is false as hell, and thou vituperatest thine own sex in saying so, lady. Wert thou the daughter of a king, instead of a proud Popish Knight, I would say so to thy face.
ref: 1832 April 4, “From an Unpublished Romance of the Seventeenth Century. An Interview.—Its Consequences.”, in The Day, a Morning Journal of Literature, Fine Arts, Fashion, &c., number 81, Glasgow: R. & J. Finlay, […], →OCLC, page 321:
text: Bear witness all ye, that Nicolas Salomen vituperateth our goodly fellowship; for this must he needs swallow another goblet.
ref: 1835, chapter IV, in Blackbeard. A Page from the Colonial History of Philadelphia. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 39:
text: [Giacomo] Leopardi was not mistaken as to the profound defects and disorders of nature. He vituperates nature in many a bitter satirical passage.
ref: 1882 July, W. L. Watkinson, “An Italian Pessimist”, in Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, volume VI (6th Series), London: Wesleyan-Methodist Book-Room, […], →OCLC, page 503, column 1:
text: Thy evil-speaking tongue shall yet cry aloud for pity from the royal lady whom thou now vituperatest. Go to; thou art an unworthy traitor, and shouldst be hanged.
ref: 1896, J[ames] E[dward] Muddock, “In the Serpent’s Coils”, in Basile the Jester: A Romance of the Days of Mary Queen of Scots, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 253:
text: Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 48:
text: Women remained the central target of restrictions and condemnations. But as the fifteenth century progressed, the giovani, guilty of the same excesses, were vituperated in their turn. Even in the early fourteenth century, regulations took note of luxurious male clothes. Any man past the age of ten was not supposed to wear velvet or silks woven with gold or silver.
ref: 1997, Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan, “A Flower of Evil: Young Men in Medieval Italy”, in Camille Naish, transl., edited by Giovanni Levi and Jean-Claude Schmitt, A History of Young People in the West (Ancient and Medieval Rites of Passage), volume 1, Cambridge, Mass.; London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 185:
synonyms: word: berate
word: scold
word: animadvert
word: admonish
word: bash
word: bawl out
word: blast
word: derogate
word: berate
word: berisp
word: castigate
word: censure
word: chastise
word: chew out
word: chide
word: condemn
word: criticize
word: denounce
word: denunciate
word: drag
word: dress down
word: eat someone alive
word: excoriate
word: find fault
word: fulminate
word: get down
word: get up
word: give somebody a piece of one's mind
word: give somebody what-for
word: inveigh
word: lace into
word: lambaste
word: lay into
word: lecture
word: light into
word: objurgate
word: pooh-pooh
word: put someone on blast
word: rate
word: read somebody the riot act
word: rebuke
word: reprehend
word: reprimand
word: reproach
word: reprove
word: rip into
word: rubbish
word: savage
word: scold
word: slam
word: tear into
word: tell off
word: threap
word: tick off
word: tosh
word: keelhaul
word: upbraid
word: vilify
word: vituperate
glosses: To criticize (someone or something) in an abusive or harsh manner.
examples: text: A bane to merit, he exerts himſelf to the deſtruction of every valuable virtue in literature, or in life: his pen is ne'er employed but in the abuſing and vituperating the innocent and meritorious; and like a voracious flie, he leaves and diſregards every accompliſhment, to fix upon the only ſore.
ref: 1773, J. R., “An Essay on Envy”, in I[saac] Thompson, editor, The Literary Register: Or, Weekly Miscellany. […], volume V, Newcastle, Northumberland: […] Compilers of that news-paper, →OCLC, page 373, column 1:
text: […] I learn that I have enemies, who, not content to hate, are sedulous to vituperate me.
ref: 1797 April 16, J[ohn] S[key] Eustace, “General Eustace to Mr. J. W. Ebervelt, of the West-India Colonial Committee, at the Hague”, in Letters on the Emancipation & Preservation of the United Provinces, to John De Witt, Esquire; with Lessons of Humanity, Addressed to Nicholas Van Staphorst: Written from Basil, in the Year 1794, Rotterdam: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 96:
text: The yeomen separated the incensed priests, who continued to raise their voices, vituperating each other in bad Latin, which the Prior delivered the more fluently, and the Hermit with the greater vehemence.
ref: 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter III, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 86:
text: [T]he Senator from Rhode Island, in charge of the bill, had been denounced and vituperated, and had shown remarkable patience in enduring these repeated insults; […]
ref: 1909 May 14, [Hernando] Money, “Senate Resolution 44. Resolved, That the President be Requested to Transmit to the Senate All Information Collected by the Department of Commerce and Labor Affecting the Prices of Tobacco and the Operations of Corporations and Others Dealing in the Same.”, in Congressional Record: Containing the Proceedings and Debates of the Sixty-first Congress, First Session, also Special Session of the Senate (United States Senate), volume XLIV, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2045, column 1:
glosses: To attack (someone or something) with abusive language; to revile, to vilify.
examples: text: Now the Brito-Celtic Church as Mr. [Henry Charles] Coote calls it, the Church which Augustine vituperated, is a fact, but I should certainly like to have some proof of the existence of the other, the "Early English Church" which Augustine ignored. And I should further like to know why he vituperated in the one case and ignored in the other.
ref: 1870 July, Edward [Augustus] Freeman, “The Alleged Permanence of Roman Civilization in England”, in David Masson, editor, Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XXII, number 129, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 225, column 2:
text: Agnolo [Pandolfini] has logic on his side in the very extreme to which he goes; but, like most of his successors in this dangerous line of remark, he loses his temper and begins to vituperate, though his rage is not against the weaker being whom he frankly despises [i.e., woman], but against the men who do not despise her.
ref: 1876, [Margaret] Oliphant, “A Peaceful Citizen”, in The Makers of Florence: Dante, Giotto, Savonarola; and Their City, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, footnote 1, pages 168–169:
text: Governor "Ben" Tillman of South Carolina vituperated back with great fluency and the scene ended by a mutual promise to finish the discussion with more lethal weapons.
ref: 1894 September 22, “Current Comment. [The Cost of Demagogism.]”, in Lorillard Spencer, editor, The Illustrated American, volume XVI, number 240, New York, N.Y.: Lorillard Spencer, →OCLC, page 364, column 2:
synonyms: rail
glosses: To use abusive or harsh words.
Derived terms: word: vituperated
Related terms: word: vice
word: vicious
word: vitiate
word: vitiligo
word: vituperable
word: vituperant
word: vituperation
word: vituperative
word: vituperatively
word: vituperator
word: vituperatory
word: vituperious
word: vituperous
word: vituperously