rebuke

CEFRC1

/ɹiˈbjuːk/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
verb
To speak angrily to someone for doing something wrong.
02
verb
Extra detail
To criticise harshly; to reprove.

Examples

He took it for an implied rebuke.
Don't rebuke him for that.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 3
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

/ɹɪˈbjuːk/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meaning

A harsh criticism.

More examples

In context

U.S. Vice President JD Vance met Saturday with the Vatican's No. 2 official, following a remarkable papal rebuke of the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrants and Vance’s theological justification of it.
O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
When Morrison mulls the pluses and minuses associated with rebuking Kelly for undermining the government’s public health messaging, the prime minister faces a genuine substantive dilemma, and that goes to the risks of amplification.

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The manager had to blank the employee for repeatedly being late to work.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance met Saturday with the Vatican's No. 2 official, following a remarkable papal rebuke of the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrants and Vance’s theological justification of it.
2025 April 19, Nicole Winfield, “JD Vance visits the Vatican for Easter after papal rebuke over Trump's migrant crackdown”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the ori...
There was the sternness of an old-fashioned Tour patron in his rebuke to the young Frenchman Pierre Rolland, the only one to ride away from the peloton and seize the opportunity for a lone attack before being absorbed back into the bunch, where he was received with coolness.
2012 July 15, Richard Williams, “Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track”, in Guardian Unlimited, archived from the original on 25 Jun 2022
With his emphasis on accepting the science (he was a trained chemist) – and hence his stern rebuke to the climate change deniers and the politicians who courted them – he even managed to reset the relationship between science and religion, which had been rocky ever since Galileo fell foul of the Inquisition 400 years earlier.
2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2025
O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
2011, Biblica, Holy Bible: New International Version, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, →ISBN, 6:(please specify the verse(s))
When Morrison mulls the pluses and minuses associated with rebuking Kelly for undermining the government’s public health messaging, the prime minister faces a genuine substantive dilemma, and that goes to the risks of amplification.
2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, “Scott Morrison must heed the lesson of Donald Trump and slap down Craig Kelly”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2021

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Origin

verb

From Middle English rebuken, from Anglo-Norman rebuker (“to beat back, repel”), from re- + Old French *buker, buchier, buschier (“to strike, hack down, chop”), from busche (“wood”), from Vulgar Latin *busca (“wood, grove”), from Frankish *busk (“grove”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush”); equivalent to re- + bush.