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Expressive of opprobrium; attaching disgrace; reproachful; scurrilous; as, opprobrious language. They . . . vindicate themselves in terms no less opprobrious than those by which they are attacked. Addison.

Disgrace; infamy; reproach mingled with contempt; abusive language. Being both dramatic author and dramatic performer, he found himself heir to a twofold opprobrium. De Quincey.

ought to revive declining piety in the Protestant churches; -- often applied as a term of reproach to those who make a display of religious feeling. Also used adjectively.

A bag pudding; a name of reproach or ridicule formerly applied by the Scotch to the English.

To hold up to public blame or reproach; to advertise opprobriously; to denounce by public proclamation; as, to post one for cowardice. On pain of being posted to your sorrow Fail not, at four, to meet me. Granville.

ffect; to cause. By all means possible they procure to have gold and silver among them in reproach. Robynson (More's Utopia) . Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall. Shak.

closely; to attempt to discover something by a scrutinizing curiosity; -- often implying reproach. " To pry upon the stars." Chaucer. Watch thou and wake when others be asleep, To pry into the secrets of the state. Shak.

A name of contemptuous reproach for a conceited and impertinent person. I found my place taken by an ill-bred, awkward puppy with a money bag under each arm. Addison.

impler forms of faith and worship than those established by law; -- originally, a term of reproach. The Puritans formed the bulk of the early population of New England.

f legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid; -- often used by way of reproach or contempt. Paritanical circles, from which plays and novels were strictly excluded. Macaulay. He had all the puritanic traits, both good and evil. Hawthorne.

A term of reproach used by the Jews of our Savior's time, meaning "worthless."

To use insolent and reproachful language; to utter reproaches; to scoff; followed by at or against, formerly by on. Shak. And rail at arts he did not understand. Dryden. Lesbia forever on me rails. Swift.

One who rails; one who scoffs, insults, censures, or reproaches with opprobrious language.

Expressing reproach; insulting. Angels which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them. 2 Pet. ii. 11.

other conditions, than those established by a trades union. Coleridge . . . incurred the reproach of having ratted, solely by his inability to follow the friends of his early days. De Quincey.

Archaic] How shall I . . . suffer that God should redargue me at doomsday, and the angels reproach my lukewarmness Jer. Taylor. Now this objection to the immediate cognition of external objects has, as far as I know, been redargued in three different ways. Sir W. Hamilton.

To cast reproach; to cause censure or dishonor. Errors of wives reflect on husbands still. Dryden. Neither do I reflect in the least upon the memory of his late majesty. Swift.

With reflection; also, with censure; reproachfully. Swift.

Censure; reproach cast. He died; and oh! may no reflection shed Its poisonous venom on the royal dead. Prior.

blame or censure; especially, blame expressed to the face; censure for a fault; chiding; reproach. Those best can bear reproof who merit praise. Pope.