as in to scold
to criticize (someone) severely or angrily especially for personal failings
got bawled out by the boss for missing another important deadline
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Recent Examples of bawl out
Trippier and Burn are organisers and not afraid to bawl out their team-mates.
—
George Caulkin, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2026
Women stopped to bawl out the police, who accepted this dressing-down with quiet embarrassment.
—National Geographic, 11 Aug. 2020
George Caulkin, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2026
Women stopped to bawl out the police, who accepted this dressing-down with quiet embarrassment.
—National Geographic, 11 Aug. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bawl out
Verb
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Security guard Pascal Duvier, most recently infamous for allegedly scolding 11-year-old Ada Law at a hotel in São Paulo, is clearing the air.—
Emily St. Martin,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2026
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The drama erupted last weekend when Jorginho went on Instagram Stories to say that his stepdaughter and wife were scolded at the São Paulo hotel for getting too close to Roan.—
Martha Ross,
Mercury News,
26 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Joanna Fabicon, who has lectured on contemporary children’s literature at UCLA, added that educators, librarians and publishers must all grapple with the allegations against Chávez and decide how to move forward.—
Howard Blume,
Los Angeles Times,
23 Mar. 2026
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Thiel has previously written and lectured on the subject, arguing that the Antichrist is not necessarily a person but could come as a global government system.—
Christopher Lamb,
CNN Money,
16 Mar. 2026
Verb
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That’s part of it, sometimes, but multiple girls do that this week and then get reprimanded for not having enough family resemblance.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
21 Mar. 2026
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In footage that circulated on social media after Sunday's telecast, the 35-year-old Best Supporting Actress nominee and recording artist was shown reprimanding someone off camera while others stepped between them.—
Joey Nolfi,
Entertainment Weekly,
16 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Roughly 20 minutes later, the controller appeared to blame himself.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
24 Mar. 2026
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Cronin blamed himself for not finding a way to stop Connecticut forward Alex Karaban, who scored 27 points and helped fuel two decisive runs for the Huskies.—
Jon Marks,
Los Angeles Times,
23 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Instead of the standard chewing out, the senior played a clip of his freshman defensive back counterpart recognizing a screen, shedding a block and securing the first solo tackle of his career against No. 5 Georgia last week.—
Noah White,
Miami Herald,
10 Nov. 2025
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Being chewed out was nothing new, part of life as a football player.—
Nick Kosmider,
New York Times,
8 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Two advisers to Qatar told me that Global Risk had also conducted background checks and written reports on people linked to campaigns criticizing Qatar; corporate-intelligence firms often provide such open-source research.—
David D. Kirkpatrick,
New Yorker,
30 Mar. 2026
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However, in a pair of letters to the editor published in the Journal of Pediatrics, doctors criticized the article as hyped.—
David Hilzenrath,
USA Today,
29 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Below, Bevel was crouched six feet from Jackson when Dr. Abernathy called down to ask him to go over to the temple where King had spoken, and calm the people.—
Gail Sheehy,
Vanity Fair,
20 Feb. 2026
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Ming opened up her fourth floor window and called down to the firefighters below.—
Kate Talerico,
San Francisco Chronicle,
19 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Bawl out.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bawl%20out. Accessed 31 Mar. 2026.
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