admonish

verb ad·mon·ish \ ad-ˈmä-nish \

Updated on: 9 May 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 school did a review, and President Joseph Castro put out a statement admonishing her comments.

— Fox News, "'Dragon energy': Kanye tweets his support of Trump," 26 Apr. 2018
The last New Jersey senator to face such public reprimand from the Ethics Committee was Robert Torricelli, a Democrat who ended his 2002 reelection bid shortly after being admonished.

— andrew seidman, Philly.com, "Sen. Bob Menendez 'severely admonished' by ethics committee," 26 Apr. 2018
The report did admonish China for its persistently large trade surplus in goods with America.

— The Economist, "America’s Treasury refrains from naming any currency manipulators," 19 Apr. 2018
Of course, there is a chance that Trump will walk over to Castro, look down on him and admonish him for not having allowed a single free election or a free press in Cuba for almost 60 years.

— andrés oppenheimer, miamiherald, "A Trump-Castro encounter may steal the show at the Summit of the Americas | Miami Herald," 7 Apr. 2018
Before the incident, T.J. says, his school’s guidance counselor had admonished him about how his locs covered his face, and had told him to fix it.

— anne branigin, The Root, "School Says Story That Principal Cut Off Student’s Locs Is ‘Total Fabrication’; Won’t Discipline Staff," 29 Mar. 2018
Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne has admonished Pearland city officials after finding that a document pertaining to the city's annexation of a tract had been altered.

— jaimy jones, Houston Chronicle, "District attorney warns city of Pearland about altered document," 28 Feb. 2018
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

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.

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

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