as in to scold
to criticize (someone) severely or angrily especially for personal failings
we could hear the cook in the kitchen railing against his assistant and wondered if we'd ever get our food
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rail (at or against)
Verb
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Miss Sammie flashed the scolding look Jean had known since childhood, though playfully now.—
David Wright Faladé,
New Yorker,
28 Sep. 2025 -
Chun also scolded attorneys for Amazon in July for withholding thousands of documents from the FTC and abusing a legal privilege to shield them from scrutiny.—
Annie Palmer,
CNBC,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Kenji lectures on the difference between Japanese static views of ruins versus Western dynamic interpretations and carries the memory of past earthquakes.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
22 Sep. 2025
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The same woman Don had been lecturing about beer.—
Maureen Lee Lenker,
Entertainment Weekly,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
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There is a form of right-of-center liberalism that is content with status hierarchies, that is very unhappy with anything that makes people feel reprimanded.—
Isaac Chotiner,
New Yorker,
23 Sep. 2025
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Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), threatened networks to reprimand Kimmel.—
Armon Sadler,
VIBE.com,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Stokes apparently called down to Bell, who answered.—
Rachel Wolf,
FOXNews.com,
12 Aug. 2025
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Tax cuts and spending cuts have to go hand in hand, otherwise the cycle starts all over again as deficit spending goes up and tax hikes come calling down the road to plug the hole.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
23 July 2025
Verb
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His post-match dressing down after the 1-1 draw at Rayo Vallecano on August 31 seems to have paid off.—
Pol Ballús,
New York Times,
15 Sep. 2025
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For the first stretch of Erupcja, Charli almost dissolves into the screen, not like an outsize personality who’s dressing down for a part, but like someone who isn’t able to repurpose her considerable ability to hold our attention — or to give us any sense of what’s on her character’s mind.—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Women stopped to bawl out the police, who accepted this dressing-down with quiet embarrassment.—
National Geographic,
National Geographic,
11 Aug. 2020
Verb
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The episode ends with Kyle’s mom chewing out Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his actions in the ongoing war.—
Tiney Ricciardi,
Denver Post,
25 Sep. 2025
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About eight or nine hours into a punishing shoot, nerves were fraying, and Mike McGuirk was getting chewed out by a camera operator.—
Katie Kilkenny,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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But historically, voters have blamed the party in power for a government shutdown.—
Rachel Schilke,
The Washington Examiner,
28 Sep. 2025
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Dohn Community High School closed in early 2025, and school officials have blamed Davenport for its abrupt collapse.—
Quinlan Bentley,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
28 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Rail (at or against).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rail%20%28at%20or%20against%29. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.
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