expostulate
Verb
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Verb
expostulate (expostulates, present participle expostulating; past and past participle expostulated)
- (intransitive) To protest or remonstrate; to reason earnestly with a person on some impropriety of conduct.
- Men expostulate with erring friends; they bring accusations against enemies who have done them a wrong.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- The tears would run plentifully down my face when I made these reflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself why Providence should thus completely ruin His creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable; so without help, abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present (book), book 2, ch. XI, "The Abbot’s Ways"
- […] he affectionately loved many persons to whom he never or hardly ever shewed a countenance of love. Once on my venturing to expostulate with him on the subject, he reminded me of Solomon: “Many sons I have; it is not fit that I should smile on them.”
- Spanish: expostular
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002