as in scolds
to criticize (someone) severely or angrily especially for personal failings
there's no need to berate someone for making a mistake during the first day on the job
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Recent Examples of berates
And Vance berates Democrats in a visit to Minneapolis.
—
Kayla Hayempour, NBC news, 23 Jan. 2026
Cast members performed on The Tonight Show and in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live, in a sketch in which host Bad Bunny berates his friends for failing to grasp the movie’s brilliance.
—Eliza Berman, Time, 9 Dec. 2025
The president publicly berates reporters — often female ones — for cheap laughs several times a week, and is met with little more than shrugs.
—Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Oct. 2025
In another clip, his mother berates Pormanove over the phone for letting the co-streamers shave off parts of his hair.
—Philippe Cordier, CNN Money, 20 Aug. 2025
Kayla Hayempour, NBC news, 23 Jan. 2026
Cast members performed on The Tonight Show and in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live, in a sketch in which host Bad Bunny berates his friends for failing to grasp the movie’s brilliance.
—Eliza Berman, Time, 9 Dec. 2025
The president publicly berates reporters — often female ones — for cheap laughs several times a week, and is met with little more than shrugs.
—Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Oct. 2025
In another clip, his mother berates Pormanove over the phone for letting the co-streamers shave off parts of his hair.
—Philippe Cordier, CNN Money, 20 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for berates
Verb
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Stumbling on to this ruse, Antoine’s friend and manager Armand (Gilles Lellouche) immediately can tell Suzanne is a fake and scolds her for exploiting his friend’s grief.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
12 May 2026
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Or tie scolds to the ducking stool again.—
Annie Lowrey,
The Atlantic,
28 Apr. 2026
Verb
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His supervisor appears as a ticket conductor and reprimands him for doing nothing.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
15 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Read's suit criticizes police for not searching the home where O'Keefe was found for blood, fingerprints or DNA evidence.—
Nadine El-Bawab,
ABC News,
4 June 2026
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The suit also criticizes ChatGPT’s propensity to agree with users, arguing that the service’s sycophancy can lead users to develop dangerous psychological attachment to the platform and cause users to pay money to unlock more generous usage quotas.—
Jared Perlo,
NBC news,
1 June 2026
Verb
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Today’s successful downtowns rely on a mix of ingredients, said Steven Falk, the former city manager of Lafayette, who’s served as an interim city executive in Oakland and Richmond and who lectures at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.—
Martha Ross,
Mercury News,
2 June 2026
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Bad teams are given mechanisms to recover, not lectures about bootstraps.—
Eddie Brown,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
30 May 2026
Verb
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The filing blames the company’s significant debt burden and the costs of its retail spaces as primary reasons for the bankruptcy filing.—
Carlton Gillespie,
Miami Herald,
3 June 2026
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Davenport blames it on the business’s contraction.—
Michael Schneider,
Variety,
28 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Berates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/berates. Accessed 10 Jun. 2026.
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