as in to dislike
to hold an unfavorable opinion of
some guests tsk-tsked the fact that the bride and groom were taking selfies
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Recent Examples of tsk-tsk
The leech therapist, whose name was Sandra, made a tsk-tsk sound over the phone.
—
Blair Braverman, Outside, 21 Jan. 2026
The first scene of Replicas has a robot tearing itself apart in horror upon having a dead man’s consciousness uploaded into it; the second scene has Alice Eve, playing Reeves’s husband, casually tsk-tsking her husband in the kitchen for trying to bring all those people back to life.
—James Grebey, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2025
Instead of playing music while the gymnasts performed, Bercy Arena turned into a church, complete with would-be church ladies tsk-tsking people who dared to react when the gymnasts nailed a skill on beam.
—Dana O'Neil, The Athletic, 5 Aug. 2024
Blair Braverman, Outside, 21 Jan. 2026
The first scene of Replicas has a robot tearing itself apart in horror upon having a dead man’s consciousness uploaded into it; the second scene has Alice Eve, playing Reeves’s husband, casually tsk-tsking her husband in the kitchen for trying to bring all those people back to life.
—James Grebey, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2025
Instead of playing music while the gymnasts performed, Bercy Arena turned into a church, complete with would-be church ladies tsk-tsking people who dared to react when the gymnasts nailed a skill on beam.
—Dana O'Neil, The Athletic, 5 Aug. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tsk-tsk
Verb
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The Republican wants to open new areas of the Gulf off Florida to drilling, and has proposed sweeping rollbacks of environmental regulations disliked by industry.—
MATTHEW BROWN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS,
Arkansas Online,
1 Apr. 2026
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Virtual shopping is a great choice for those who are short on time or really dislike shopping.—
Bailey Reed,
Louisville Courier Journal,
1 Apr. 2026
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
Cite this Entry
“Tsk-tsk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tsk-tsk. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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