Verb
“You should never have done that,” she scolded.
he scolded the kids for not cleaning up the mess they had made in the kitchen Noun
He can be a bit of a scold sometimes.
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Verb
Paul Krugman has referred to deficit hawks as ‘deficit scolds’, because the spend more time warning about the dangers of the deficit than fixing it.—Mike O'Sullivan, Forbes.com, 28 June 2025 Musk and Gor reportedly clashed in Cabinet meetings where Musk scolded Gor over personnel disagreements in recent months.—Ally Goelz, The Washington Examiner, 19 June 2025
Noun
Don’t be a scold, don’t be a moaner, don’t be a finger-wagging elitist, don’t be an eco-bore, don’t be a mentally ill homeless guy.—James Parker, The Atlantic, 5 May 2022 His showdowns with the head of the local diocese, played as a puckish scold by Malcolm McDowell, are some of the best in the film.—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 12 Apr. 2022 See All Example Sentences for scold
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English scald, scold, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse skāld poet, skald, Icelandic skālda to make scurrilous verse
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