rail (at or against)

verb

Definition of rail (at or against)next
as in to scold
to criticize (someone) severely or angrily especially for personal failings we could hear the cook in the kitchen railing against his assistant and wondered if we'd ever get our food

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for rail (at or against)
  1. scold
  2. lecture
  3. reprimand
  4. call down
  5. dress down
  6. chew out
  7. blame
Verb
  • Still, watching Hannah scold him about everything, from 401(k)s to boiling water to phone bills, from ordering him to walk a dog that doesn’t belong to him to telling him that riding hotel pool furniture would give her the ick, was painful.
    Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 31 Oct. 2024
  • Dolores returns to scold her grandson for badmouthing her during the show’s Día de los Muertos episode, which airs on NBC on Friday, Oct. 25.
    Brendan Le, People.com, 25 Oct. 2024
Definition of scold
Verb
  • They even get lectured by parents for breaking rules — but that doesn't stop them from finding a spaceship buried in the nearby woods.
    Christian Holub, EW.com, 1 Nov. 2024
  • The whole thing reads as if it is being delivered by someone looking down over their glasses with their hands on their hips like a parent lecturing a child.
    Roger Valdez, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024
Definition of lecture
Verb
  • The Democratic chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee reprimanded the heads of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security for failing to appear for an annual hearing.
    Matt Robison, Newsweek, 21 Nov. 2024
  • Judge denies Preston Lord defendant's request to return case to grand jury Cochise County judge reprimanded for issuing improper arrest warrant Tucson robbery cases for the year's first nine months were tacked at 598, reflecting a spike of 25 from all of last year.
    Jose R. Gonzalez, The Arizona Republic, 21 Nov. 2024
Definition of reprimand
Verb
  • A number of companies are vying to win the business of apartment community companies interested in providing their residents with amenities that might best be called down to earth.
    Jeffrey Steele, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024
  • If the alarm rang outside business hours, someone would need to call down a list of seismologists until someone agreed to come in.
    Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2024
Definition of call down
Verb
  • The quilting paired with the corduroy collar and simple button closure makes this an easy jacket to dress up or dress down.
    Carly Totten, Southern Living, 16 Oct. 2024
  • Meanwhile, their two sons dressed down, with one wearing a blue button-down shirt and black pants and the other opting for a white shirt and blue jeans.
    Raven Brunner, Peoplemag, 17 Sep. 2024
Definition of dress down
Verb
  • There’s also a story line of Harper being chewed out by Petra when Petra finds out how Harper actually got the information necessary to short Pierpoint, i.e., illegally.
    Nina Li Coomes, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2024
  • In the following scene, which marks a turning point between Emily and Luke, Emily chews out Luke for pushing a deal that ends up costing their firm $25 million.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 6 Oct. 2023
Definition of chew out
Verb
  • The spokesperson noted that the failure to win a loan guarantee from the German government wasn't down to Lilium's technology, but instead was blamed on disagreement in parliament from the Green Party over funding an air travel company.
    Nicole Kobie, Forbes, 22 Nov. 2024
  • An American citizen has died at a popular adventure spot in Laos where alcohol tainted with methanol has been blamed for a spate of poisonings in recent days.
    Mithil Aggarwal, NBC News, 22 Nov. 2024
Definition of blame
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near rail (at or against)

rail (against)

rail (at or against)

railed

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Rail (at or against).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rail%20%28at%20or%20against%29. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.

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