as in scolds
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 rails (at or against)
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 -
Or tie scolds to the ducking stool again.—
Annie Lowrey,
The Atlantic,
28 Apr. 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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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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Scarlett Johansson dresses down in a New York Giants sweatshirt on set for The Exorcist in New York City on March 30.—
Katie Hill,
PEOPLE,
2 Apr. 2026
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Around the same time, Oscar de la Renta sent floor-skimming shirt dresses down the runway, while Stephen Burrows gave sequins a sporty edge in wrap-styles blouses and dresses – perfect for transitioning from work to cocktail parties in the era.—
Tonya Blazio-Licorish,
Footwear News,
19 Dec. 2025
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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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
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Cite this Entry
“Rails (at or against).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rails%20%28at%20or%20against%29. Accessed 9 Jun. 2026.
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