1
as in attacking
to criticize harshly and usually publicly
the mayor had hardly been in office for a month before she was being excoriated for problems of very long standing
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Recent Examples of excoriating
The level of anger was quickly evident in state media broadcasts - which analysts say are often a measure of official Saudi viewpoints - with television news reports personally excoriating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
—
Pesha Magid, Reuters, 14 Feb. 2025
Pesha Magid, Reuters, 14 Feb. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for excoriating
Verb
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The team has started the 2025/26 season in a less than free-flowing fashion and has struggled to put up the attacking numbers that might be expected of a defending champion.—
James Nalton,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
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Atalanta comes in with resilience and attacking threats, particularly in transition, but their back line has looked shaky at times this year.—
Ben Verbrugge,
MSNBC Newsweek,
17 Sep. 2025
Verb
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However, Agnes is dressed exactly like Wednesday and her Single White Female act is irritating the hell out of her hero.—
Jessica M. Goldstein,
Vulture,
3 Sep. 2025
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Pesky skeeters are irritating Lake County residents as the number of insects carrying the worrisome West Nile Virus climbs.—
Charles Selle,
Chicago Tribune,
25 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Demonstrators carried signs slamming Disney, ABC, the FCC and the TV station group owners who dealt the fatal blow to Kimmel by declaring that he would be preempted in heartland markets such as Nashville, New Orleans and Salt Lake City.—
Dan Doperalski,
Variety,
19 Sep. 2025
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But then, less than two years later, a punishing atmospheric river storm sent a large redwood tree crashing down the steep slopes of the forest, slamming into the main bridge and causing other damage to the new facilities.—
Paul Rogers,
Mercury News,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The fourth quarter of Sunday’s early-window games featured one head-scratching special teams play and a game in which two teams traded consecutive return scores in a span of 12 seconds.—
Saad Yousuf,
New York Times,
14 Sep. 2025
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Both are resistant to cracking and scratching, but Apple says the second-generation material is three times more resistant to scratching.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Shipp is tasked with scolding her father and delivering leaden exposition.—
Esther Zuckerman,
IndieWire,
11 Sep. 2025
Verb
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To add details, etch swooping lines around the holes by scraping away the pumpkin's outer skin to create contrast.—
Maria Sabella,
Better Homes & Gardens,
15 Sep. 2025
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Two games into 2025, the league’s lowest-scoring team from last year is still scraping the bottom.—
Zac Jackson,
New York Times,
15 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Trump’s former national security adviser then resumed criticizing his foreign policy on Ukraine.—
David Mark,
The Washington Examiner,
19 Sep. 2025
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After a particularly bad at-bat in the seventh inning of Thursday's game, manager John Schneider didn't shy away from criticizing the franchise player and sounding the alarm on the offense as a whole.—
Peter Chawaga,
MSNBC Newsweek,
19 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Excoriating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/excoriating. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.
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