admonish

verb ad·mon·ish \ ad-ˈmä-nish \

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of admonish

transitive verb

1 a : to indicate duties or obligations to

b : to express warning or disapproval to especially in a gentle, earnest, or solicitous manner

were admonished for being late

2 : to give friendly earnest advice or encouragement to

admonished them to be careful

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admonisher

noun

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admonishment

play \-mənt\ noun

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Examples of admonish in a Sentence

"You landed in back of him," said Paul, my guide and friend. As he admonished me, the fish turned obligingly, opened its mouth, wide and white, and engulfed my fly. —Peter Kaminsky, New York Times, 17 June 2001
He is sympathetic but never condescending, or patronizing, or moralizing. His purpose is not to admonish or deplore but to understand. —C. Vann Woodward, New York Times Book Review, 5 Feb. 1989
Cops are, from the first day in the academy, admonished that juveniles must not be shot unless in dire emergency … —Joseph Wambaugh, Lines and Shadows, 1984
They were admonished to take advantage of the opportunity.
my physician is always admonishing me to eat more healthy foods

Recent Examples of admonish from the Web

The judge admonished Brittany Miller and ordered her not to talk about her husband's case with anyone other than immediate family.

— eric heisig, cleveland.com, "Gag order imposed on Akron woman who called husband's co-defendant a snitch in federal cocaine case," 1 Mar. 2018
Kentucky Democrats admonished Republican legislative leaders for picking a group of white men to hammer out the state's roughly $22 billion biennium budget.

— morgan watkins, The Courier-Journal, "Democrats accuse GOP of 'sexist, white-male agenda' over budget negotiation's makeup," 26 Mar. 2018
Under questioning from Rucker, Tom Carter also recalled how Diane McIver would sometimes admonish her husband about his weight.

— ajc homepage, ajc, "Tex McIver voicemail: ‘Dani is about to send me to prison.’," 21 Mar. 2018
In a voluminous 133-page decision, the judges admonished the state courts for ignoring precedents like Solem v. Bartlett, a 1984 Supreme Court case that laid out a three-part test for disputes about Indian reservation boundaries.

— matt ford, The New Republic, "The Grisly Murder Case That Could Turn Half of Oklahoma Back Into Tribal Lands," 15 Mar. 2018
Black women are often admonished to make better choices.

— brittney cooper, Time, "Stop Asking Whether Women 'Love Themselves Enough' to Leave Their Abusers," 15 Mar. 2018
Even friends and supporters interviewed for this story said they, too, had admonished Hallowell after witnessing his offensive behavior.

— tara duggan, San Francisco Chronicle, "New allegations suggest Oakland chef Charlie Hallowell was long aware of harassment charges," 11 Mar. 2018
Later in the live episode, co-host Russell Connor admonishes Silver for being hard on Sinatra.

— ryan h. walsh, BostonGlobe.com, "Boston’s most radical TV show blew the minds of a stoned generation in 1967," 1 Mar. 2018
But approval came after several aldermen admonished Michael Pegues, the city's chief information officer, for having some of the work done before the City Council reviewed it.

— steve lord, Aurora Beacon-News, "Aurora OKs grant to extend fiber optic network," 28 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'admonish.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

When Should You Use [admonish]?

Admonish was borrowed in the 14th century (via Anglo-French) from Vulgar Latin admonestare, which is itself an alteration of the Latin verb admonēre, meaning "to warn." Admonēre, in turn, was formed by the combination of the prefix ad- and monēre, "to warn." Other descendants of monēre in English include monitor, monitory ("giving a warning"), premonition, and even a now archaic synonym of admonish, monish. Incidentally, admonish has a number of other synonyms as well, including reprove, rebuke, reprimand, reproach, and chide.

Origin and Etymology of admonish

Middle English amonysshen, admonisshen, amonescen, alteration (with assimilation to the verbal suffix -issh, -esce, borrowed from Anglo-French -iss-, going back to the Latin inceptive suffix -ēsc-, -īsc-) of amonesten, borrowed from Anglo-French amonester, going back to Vulgar Latin *admonestāre, probably derivative of *admonestus, past participle of Latin admonēre "to give a reminder to, give advice to, caution" (modeled on comestus, past participle of comedere "to eat up, consume") from ad- ad- + monēre "to bring to the notice of, give warning" — more at ¹mind

Note: The source of *admonestāre is uncertain. A cross between admonēre and molestāre, "to disturb, annoy, worry," has been hypothesized, though the lack of any Romance progeny for molestus, molestāre, etc., militates against the presence of this verb in proto-Romance.

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First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

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