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
Shipp is tasked with scolding her father and delivering leaden exposition.—Esther Zuckerman, IndieWire, 11 Sep. 2025 In Part 2, viewers see Morticia scold her children for lying to her, yet Morticia is keeping secrets from Wednesday about her past and family.—Carly Thomas, HollywoodReporter, 5 Sep. 2025
Noun
With trigger-warning culture on the wane and a brutish permissiveness creeping back into society, corporate scolds have lost much of their power.—Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 2 Sep. 2025 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 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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