upbraid

English

WOTD – 7 March 2007

Etymology

From Middle English upbreiden, from Old English ūpbreġdan, equivalent to up- + braid. Compare English umbraid (to upbraid), Icelandic bregða (to draw, brandish, braid, deviate from, change, break off, upbraid). See up, and braid (transitive).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌʌpˈbɹeɪd/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪd

Verb

upbraid (third-person singular simple present upbraids, present participle upbraiding, simple past and past participle upbraided)

  1. (transitive) To criticize severely.
    • Matthew 11:20,
      Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done.
    • Sir Philip Sidney (Can we date this quote?),
      How much doth thy kindness upbraid my wickedness!
  2. (transitive, 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.
    • Mark 16:14,
      And upbraided them with their unbelief.
    • Shakespeare
      Yet do not upbraid us our distress.
  3. (obsolete) To treat with contempt.
    • Spenser
      There also was that mighty monarch laid, Low under all, yet above all in pride; That name of native fire did foul upbraid, And would, as Ammon's son, be magnify'd.
  4. (obsolete) To object or urge as a matter of reproach; to cast up; – with to before the person.
    • Francis Bacon
      Those that have been bred together, are more apt to envy their equals when raised: for it doth upbraid unto them their own fortunes, and pointeth at them.
  5. (archaic, intransitive) To utter upbraidings.
  6. (Britain dialectal, Northern England) To rise on the stomach; vomit; retch.

Synonyms

Translations

Noun

upbraid (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) The act of reproaching; contumely.

Translations

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