scold
Plural: scolds
Noun
- someone (especially a woman) who annoys people by constantly finding fault
- A person who habitually scolds, in particular a troublesome and angry woman.
Verb
Verb Forms: scolded, scolding, scolds
- To rebuke harshly; to reprimand severely.
- censure severely or angrily
- "The mother scolded the child for entering a stranger's car"
- show one's unhappiness or critical attitude
- "He scolded about anything that he thought was wrong"
- To rebuke angrily.
- Of birds, to make harsh vocalisations in aggression.
- Of birds, to make vocalisations that resemble human scolding.
- Misconstruction of scald.
Examples
- He wanted to SCOLD himself for missing that crucial seven-letter word opportunity.
- I advise that you refrain from using that kind of language at home, lest your mother scold you.
Origin / Etymology
The noun is from Middle English scold(e), skald(e), first attested in the 12th or 13th century (as scold, scolde, skolde, skald). The verb is from Middle English scolden, first attested in the late 1300s. Most dictionaries derive the verb from the noun and say the noun is probably from Old Norse skald (“poet”) (cognate with Icelandic skáld (“poet, scop”)), as skalds sometimes wrote insulting poems, though another view is that the Norse and English words are cognate to each other and to Old High German skeltan, Old Dutch skeldan, all inherited from Proto-Germanic *skeldaną (“scold”).
Synonyms
bawl out, berate, call down, call on the carpet, chew out, chew up, chide, common scold, dress down, grouch, grumble, have words, jaw, lambast, lambaste, lecture, nag, nagger, rag, rebuke, remonstrate, reprimand, reproof, scolder, take to task, trounce, AWFUL, Karen, criticize, shrew, social justice warrior, wokescold
Scrabble Score: 8
scold: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordscold: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
scold: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary