toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

berate
in a sentence

show 137 more with this conextual meaning
  • The few idiots who arrive at boot camp with Marine Corps tattoos are mercilessly berated.†   (source)
  • She put a Shadows record on the turntable, threw herself down on the sofa, and berated herself for the tears that were welling up.†   (source)
  • Once I finally got a grip, I pulled up the Scoreboard and made myself stare at it for thirty solid minutes while I mentally berated myself.†   (source)
  • Harry looked around for Madam Hooch, but she was still berating Crabbe for his illegal Sludger attack.†   (source)
  • My grandmother sounded as if she were the haranguing leader of a compliant mob, as if it were her special responsibility to berate her audience and to amuse them, almost simultaneously—for they rewarded her humor with their punctual laughter, as if they were highly entertained that the tone of voice she used on them was uniformly abusive.†   (source)
  • Berating, bemoaning, useful words.†   (source)
  • A lesser man may beg a favor from the khal, but must never presume to berate him.†   (source)
  • …I have to save myself with a joke, and then I'm not even talking about my own family, who assume I must be sick, stuff me with aspirins and sedatives, feel my neck and forehead to see if I have a temperature, ask about my bowel movements and berate me for being in a bad mood, until I just can't keep it up anymore, because when everybody starts hovering over me, I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside g out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the…†   (source)
  • He loved to berate me in front of his men, my dad — swaggering around like a Mafia boss, saying I owed him money for this and that, taking it out of my quote unquote 'salary.'†   (source)
  • He berated himself silently.†   (source)
  • You see, stupid? he berated himself.†   (source)
  • "Sorry," said Eragon, berating himself for the slip.†   (source)
  • Ruth hoped her mother would not continue to berate Nicky.†   (source)
  • Sol realized one day that the topics of the heated debates were so profound, the stakes to be settled so serious, the ground covered so broad, that the only person he could possibly be berating for such shortcomings was God Himself.†   (source)
  • As workers came to him for their wages, he berated them for doing shoddy work and refused to pay them, even if the work was perfect.†   (source)
  • She slapped Leo, then berated him in rapid Spanish.†   (source)
  • Each supervisor is like a little dictator in his or her section of the plant, largely free to boss, fire, berate, or reassign workers.†   (source)
  • I berated them for gossiping like a sewing circle of old women and reminded them that without people like Mr. Wandati the likes of us would be back in our villages collecting cow dung.†   (source)
  • Cathy was with Damien all weekend, and when I saw her last night, I didn't give her a chance to berate me.†   (source)
  • My father stands in the middle of the room while the Biomedical Team berates him.†   (source)
  • As I made my desolate way back to the stairs, my wise self took the opportunity to berate me.†   (source)
  • As the teacher continued to berate the other students, a number of things tumbled about inside my mind.†   (source)
  • He berated himself for this subsequently, but not too much, even though after their last meeting he would not stop thinking of her until his death, which was, though neither of them then knew it, only a few short months away.†   (source)
  • If the Chairman hadn't come to give me news about Nobu, he'd come for some other reason—probably to berate me for what I'd done.†   (source)
  • And here she'd always berated him for his failures in business when the greater bankruptcy had been on her part.†   (source)
  • When the train passed he pushed himself away from the pole where he had been leaning, berated me for making all that noise and said, "Let's go home."†   (source)
  • But without warning, a long way into the woods, he began to berate her with humiliating invective and revolting remarks about her morals and sexual predilections.†   (source)
  • Fezzik began berating himself.†   (source)
  • And then inevitably her father would come in and berate her for disturbing a pencil or a file or-God forbid-himself.†   (source)
  • All night long I berated myself.†   (source)
  • I said this in a most respectful manner, but Tefu jumped in and started to berate Sobukwe.†   (source)
  • Or for the two of them to come charging into the study, so that Susan could berate her.†   (source)
  • Eventually Lou Ann gave up on berating her hair and set up the ironing board in the kitchen.†   (source)
  • Stop berating yourself.†   (source)
  • I thought at first that Ambiades was going to smile, but he scowled instead and didn't speak until we stopped for the night, and then it was only to berate Sophos.†   (source)
  • " "Don't berate the man, Woodrow," Augustus said.†   (source)
  • The kid is eating box lunch at the Y. "Sboccato," the butcher said happily, berating Antone, rasping the word from deep in his throat.†   (source)
  • Intelligence agents bustled Mukhtar into a car and a convoy drove her to Islamabad, where she was furiously berated.†   (source)
  • Silently, I berate myself for falling prey to such a nasty prank.†   (source)
  • Although Adam had been embarrassed and berated himself the night before, he laughed at the nickname.†   (source)
  • He was his own sarcophagus, a bold and infallible diplomat who was always berating himself disgustedly for all the chances he had missed and kicking himself regretfully for all the errors he had made.†   (source)
  • Again and again I berated myself for choosing this time—after all these years—to visit Snow Flower.†   (source)
  • He missed the connection in San Francisco, and while berating a ticket agent almost got himself handcuffed by a security guard.†   (source)
  • I could have no more challenged him, berated him, hurt him than I could have kicked some three-legged dog.†   (source)
  • He had been to the chapel only once before, humorously berating his a railing of some sort in front of a raised lectern, beneath primitive stained-glass windows done by native artisans.†   (source)
  • Rather, in the eighteenth-century use of the word, he was berating himself for being overly proud, conceited.†   (source)
  • However, as much as I tried, it seemed that I could do nothing right for my two hard-nosed supervisors, who berated me every minute of the day.†   (source)
  • She argues with Abuela's neighbors, picks fights with waiters, berates the man who sells ice cones on the beach.†   (source)
  • Ajax was there, however, sitting astride a heavy bay stallion and berating several boys who had cracked a water barrel while unloading a supply cart.†   (source)
  • On the other side of the matrix, an angel is berating a human servant.†   (source)
  • It was time to stop berating herself for not tying everything up neatly in a matter of hours and make the slim advantage she still had work for her.†   (source)
  • Thomas had returned to his Guard, and the Council had joined them to berate his decision to give Johan safe passage from the forest.†   (source)
  • Miri no longer expects anything from her daughter, except to be challenged, berated and humiliated.†   (source)
  • Often, he would yell at the cadet, berate him for negligence or stupidity, offer to pay his tuition to Clemson, burn him for unshined shoes, insult him in front of the secretaries in the commandant's office; but always, always, he would help him in any way he could.†   (source)
  • Every once in a while he would rattle off a long stream of Spanish, berating the Africans and saying, "Wait until we get back to Havana.†   (source)
  • I didn't see any police except for the young cop Janice had berated, who was making his way to the spot she had been pointing to.†   (source)
  • "There's no reason to get hostile, to berate a poor little plant just for growing when you're the one who planted it.†   (source)
  • She berated Qassam daily for failing to earn more money and consoled herself by driving them deeper into debt.†   (source)
  • More than once he dreamed it was inside that house that the cave had moved, and the buttermilk man went in and out the rooms driving his horse with its red rose and berating its side with a whip that unfurled of itself; in the dream he was not singing.†   (source)
  • He silently berated himself for not contacting her sooner.†   (source)
  • At night he'd lie awake, berating himself, bemoaning his fate.†   (source)
  • She berated Liesel's naked chest as she scrubbed away.†   (source)
  • Lourdes berates herself for not dating an American who asked her out long ago.†   (source)
  • I should have thought of that, he berated himself.†   (source)
  • "He was seven, Jaime," she'd berated him.†   (source)
  • Each of them berated you because they feared you and envied you.†   (source)
  • The thought pained her, and she berated herself for not having borne children when she could.†   (source)
  • I tossed and turned in agony, remembering why I had brought Mahtob here, berating myself endlessly.†   (source)
  • He never berated us when he found us leaning on our spades and talking.†   (source)
  • It sounds as if he's berating her, but he's telling the girl what to do.†   (source)
  • Writing to Mary Cranch, Abigail berated Congress for being so slow to vote a declaration of war.†   (source)
  • Ron and Hermione looked quickly at Harry, as though expecting him to start berating Hagrid for not telling him the truth about Black.†   (source)
  • Stupid, fearful woman! she berated herself, and then amended that to: Stupid, fearful, selfish woman!†   (source)
  • Fred was suddenly raving, furious, hysterical, berating the waiter and shouting with such force that his face turned purple.†   (source)
  • Doyle was berated by his own mother when he wrote and told her of his intention to do away with Holmes.†   (source)
  • And still the hammer rose and fell to the light, tinkling air of the Strauss melody, and it seemed that he could see the man's face, working and knotting and constricting, could see the clockwork daddy's mouth opening and closing as he berated the unconscious, bludgeoned figure of the son.†   (source)
  • I berated myself for not being more forceful with her, though in truth there was no way I could have pursued her any harder without at least a tiny bit of encouragement on her end.†   (source)
  • She sometimes felt that his praying was not neutral towards her, in fact she suspected it carried a hint of reproach, though why she felt this she could not say, for he had never told her to pray nor berated her for not praying.†   (source)
  • She berated herself.†   (source)
  • It was they who were helpless, they who would soon have to stammer apologies in their silly accents and hop around on one foot in their luxurious hotel rooms, trapped in their own pant legs with their bums sticking out, smooth bums and hairy bums, bums of different sizes and colours, while Uncle En berated them.†   (source)
  • The sound startled him, but he berated himself for being silly-he could not be the only person in the library.†   (source)
  • Eva berates her daughter.†   (source)
  • From almost the moment that Louie walked into camp, the Bird was on him, slapping him, punching him, and berating him.†   (source)
  • The master of the Dolphin berated them for wasting his time, and the owner of the Seventh Son accused them of being pirates.†   (source)
  • He berated himself for overreacting, thinking,It can't be that bad, but the longer he studied Roran, the more dismayed he became.†   (source)
  • The driver was being alternately berated and consoled by Wu Song, who wanted nothing more than to be spared any further violence.†   (source)
  • Max sat red-faced with knitted fingers while his Mystics instructor berated him for losing his temper.†   (source)
  • I am of information that she has been beaten, berated and quite possibly violated in the way only a woman can be violated, while her captors continue to demand and await her confession-a piece of fiction she has quite properly, steadfastly, refused to provide them.†   (source)
  • She's berating him for being a fool.†   (source)
  • First, she berates Carla, who as the oldest was in charge and had orders to stick with Mundin and Fifi as their in-car chaperone.†   (source)
  • She'd brew some decaf, and just like the last time, he'd sit on the couch and listen for hours as she berated herself for being so foolish.†   (source)
  • …who'd written the word towelhead in white paint on the driveway of his employer, a Pakistani convenience store owner who'd fired him for being drunk on the job; some research about why the words under God had been added to the Pledge of Allegiance in i954 during the McCarthy era; and a stack of mail equally balanced between desperate souls who wanted me to fight on their behalf and right-wing conservatives who berated the ACLU for making it criminal to be a white churchgoing Christian.†   (source)
  • He watched an old man in a baseball cap casually spit out a plug of tobacco before he berated the umpire.†   (source)
  • A younger, much younger self, and there was another figure, in uniform, pacing like a caged ferret back and forth in front of the chair, savagely berating the man then known as Delta One.†   (source)
  • One time, before I had to fly overseas, Patsy rushed into my apartment, telling me how her mother and siblings were again berating her.†   (source)
  • He flipped upright and, berating himself for not trying this sooner, shouted a spell laced with nine of the twelve death-words Oromis had taught him.†   (source)
  • Adam never took the yelling and berating from the recruit division commander personally, unlike many of the younger guys, who felt the full stinging disparagement of these verbal beat-downs.†   (source)
  • A hard, one-armed man swaggered around among them, slapping whoever annoyed him with the flat of his own sword, yelling, berating.†   (source)
  • So when I finally came upon the doctor, when I finally saw the angular shape of his back and his wiry neck as he berated several soldiers for the dilapidated state of their quarters, it seemed I was summoning the picture of my plunging a long blade into his throat, terrorizing him not with pain so much as the fright of an instant, wholly unanticipated death.†   (source)
  • We should have used a log or a boulder to wedge them open," he lamented, berating himself for not thinking of it beforehand.†   (source)
  • Urgals!" he cried, and leaped onto Saphira, berating himself for leaving his sword, Zar'roc, in his room.†   (source)
  • He prayed instinctively that Yossarian, Nately, Hungry Joe and his other friends would not be listed among the victims, then berated himself repentantly, for to pray for their safety was to pray for the death of other young men he did not even know.†   (source)
  • In front of our other guests Hormoz berated Ellen for many minutes as she hung her chad or-covered head in submission.†   (source)
  • While the Republicans assaulted him as a warmonger, he was berated by the High Federalists as fainthearted in the face of the French.†   (source)
  • Stupid, she berated herself.†   (source)
  • On my first qualification flight, I found out how serious my job was when a low-ranking radio operator actually berated me in front of the entire crew because his lunch did not receive a mustard package.†   (source)
  • He taught me, comforted me …. berated me when I was too arrogant, and saved me from making a fool of myself more times than I can remember.†   (source)
  • He resumed speaking, berating and disparaging the clan chiefs with increasing passion until he was shouting at the top of his lungs.†   (source)
  • In truth, Lelia's own eventual list was probably just karmic justice for what I made him endure those final nights, which was my berating him for the way he had conducted his life with my mother, and then his housekeeper, and his businesses and beliefs, to speak once and for all the less than holy versions of who he was.†   (source)
  • I know what he would have said: he would have berated me for being a love-struck fool and for wasting my energy on a hopeless cause…….†   (source)
  • But never until now was he known to have berated a subordinate, and his regret over the outburst was considerable.†   (source)
  • I berated myself.†   (source)
  • He berated himself for being too shy.†   (source)
  • He berated Adams in nearly every way possible—for his "great intrinsic defects of character," his "disgusting egotism," weaknesses, vacillation, his "eccentric tendencies," his "bitter animosity" toward his own cabinet.†   (source)
  • Looking out for an instant from precarious holds, they took in sharply for memory's sake that berated figure, the mask formed and set on the face, one hand displayed, one jealously clawed under the waist, as if a secret handful had been groveled for, the spread and spotted legs.†   (source)
  • In the case of Saumensch, it serves to castigate, berate, or plain humiliate a female.†   (source)
  • Mama was not the same—she didn't berate.†   (source)
  • Why don't you berate and intimidate them?†   (source)
  • And he immediately took this as a pretext to berate her.†   (source)
  • All I could do was shake my head as Grandmother continued to berate me.†   (source)
  • She would run to Moody and berate him for keeping me here against my will.†   (source)
  • When he'd come into the room, he hadn't planned to do any more than rake her to the bone for her deception and berate her for wasting her talent.†   (source)
  • And if that weren't enough, not one day, a single solitary day, passed that my mother didn't berate me, boss me around, telling me what to do and when to do it; what friends I could and couldn't have over for visits.†   (source)
  • He was frustrated by the direction the conversation had taken and eager to change the topic as quickly as he could; he had not contacted the queen so she could berate him as if he were a mere child.†   (source)
  • Regardless of the vindictive threats of the bullets, he went about coaxing, berating, and bedamning.†   (source)
  • She berated herself, "Stop this fever of reforming everything!†   (source)
  • Then he berated her, brought down the wrath of God upon her, threatened her with damnation.†   (source)
  • Tom Willard was berating the traveling men.†   (source)
  • Hans Castorp recalled quite well how in several of the exceedingly vivid dreams that filled his nights up here, he had been annoyed by the Italian's delicate, dry smile, the mocking curl of the lip just below where the full moustache swept handsomely upward, how he had berated him as an organ-grinder because he was in the way up here.†   (source)
  • When he heard his mother spoken of harshly or when he overheard her berating his father, he was frightened and ran away to hide.†   (source)
  • If any part of the dinner was a failure, there were fifty indisputably good reasons for it; and it was the fault undeniably of fifty other people, whom Dinah berated with unsparing zeal.†   (source)
  • If the goal was a disappointment, if the church was meagre, or the ruin a heap of rubbish, Newman never protested or berated his cicerone; he looked with an impartial eye upon great monuments and small, made the guide recite his lesson, listened to it religiously, asked if there was nothing else to be seen in the neighborhood, and drove back again at a rattling pace.†   (source)
  • Odious to Akhilleus this man was, and to Odysseus, having yapped at both, but this time he berated Agamemnon— at whom in fact the troops were furious— lifting his voice and jeering: "Agamemnon!†   (source)
  • And now, from the colonnade, he made his Trojan people keep their distance, berating and abusing them: "Away, you craven fools and rubbish!†   (source)
  • They united in only one thing and this was to berate the agent for his ill management of the estates, so that he who had once been oily and unctuous, a man of plenty and of ease, was now become anxious and harried and his flesh gone so that his skin hung upon him like an old garment.†   (source)
  • TITANIA If her whims the wife control, And the man berate her, Take him to the Northern Pole, And her to the Equator!†   (source)
  • The mother would scold the father for being so "easy"; Josie would roundly berate the boys for carelessness; and all knew that it was a hard thing to dig a living out of a rocky side-hill.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)