All 7 Uses
reprove
in
Little Women
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- "Jo does use such slang words!" observed Amy, with a reproving look at the long figure stretched on the rug.†
p. 5.1 *reproving = criticizing or critical
- The patience and the humility of the face she loved so well was a better lesson to Jo than the wisest lecture, the sharpest reproof.†
p. 85.1reproof = criticism
- When will you stop such romping ways?" said Meg reprovingly, as she settled her cuffs and smoothed her hair, with which the wind had taken liberties.†
p. 163.6reprovingly = in a critical manner
- If you had just reversed the nod and the bow, it would have been right," said Amy reprovingly.†
p. 316.6
- "I'm glad of it, that's one of your foolish extravagances, sending flowers and things to girls for whom you don't care two pins," continued Jo reprovingly.†
p. 350.7
- He did it so quietly that Jo never knew he was watching to see if she would accept and profit by his reproof, but she stood the test, and he was satisfied, for though no words passed between them, he knew that she had given up writing.†
p. 386.4reproof = criticism
- There was a sort of poetic justice about it, after all, for the old lady had been the terror of the boys for miles around, and now the exiles feasted freely on forbidden plums, kicked up the gravel with profane boots unreproved, and played cricket in the big field where the irritable 'cow with a crumpled horn' used to invite rash youths to come and be tossed.†
p. 523.5unreproved = not criticizedstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unreproved means not and reverses the meaning of reproved. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
Definitions:
-
(1)
(reprove) express disapproval or criticism -- typically in a mild manner & sometimes even in a friendly manner
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) More rarely (though often from Shakespeare), the form reproof describes punishment rather than merely criticism.