as in to scold
to criticize (someone) severely or angrily especially for personal failings
we could hear the cook in the kitchen railing against his assistant and wondered if we'd ever get our food
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rail (at or against)
Verb
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Shipp is tasked with scolding her father and delivering leaden exposition.—
Esther Zuckerman,
IndieWire,
11 Sep. 2025 -
In Part 2, viewers see Morticia scold her children for lying to her, yet Morticia is keeping secrets from Wednesday about her past and family.—
Carly Thomas,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
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For a time she was asked to lecture new volunteers … until she was asked not to.—
Mimi Pond,
People.com,
14 Sep. 2025
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In between all the jokes, the film stops more than once to basically lecture on this sad state of affairs, an admirable Sturges-like approach that gets laid on thick, perhaps too thick to merge successfully with the largely comedic rhythm Ansari has established so well.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
7 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Tensions are high on campuses after the assassination, with some professors getting fired or reprimanded for celebrations of the conservative commentator’s death.—
Lexi Lonas Cochran,
The Hill,
13 Sep. 2025
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San Juan Unified School District Trustee Nick Bloise was formally reprimanded by the board in relation to his behavior during a school site visit.—
Jennah Pendleton,
Sacbee.com,
11 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Stokes apparently called down to Bell, who answered.—
Rachel Wolf,
FOXNews.com,
12 Aug. 2025
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Tax cuts and spending cuts have to go hand in hand, otherwise the cycle starts all over again as deficit spending goes up and tax hikes come calling down the road to plug the hole.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
23 July 2025
Verb
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For the first stretch of Erupcja, Charli almost dissolves into the screen, not like an outsize personality who’s dressing down for a part, but like someone who isn’t able to repurpose her considerable ability to hold our attention — or to give us any sense of what’s on her character’s mind.—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
5 Sep. 2025
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While everyone else is dressing up, Sabally is dressing down, in the best way: a cool, '90s Princess Diana kind of way.—
Tiana Randall,
Forbes.com,
20 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Women stopped to bawl out the police, who accepted this dressing-down with quiet embarrassment.—
National Geographic,
National Geographic,
11 Aug. 2020
Verb
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About eight or nine hours into a punishing shoot, nerves were fraying, and Mike McGuirk was getting chewed out by a camera operator.—
Katie Kilkenny,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Sep. 2025
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Instances when the coach chewed out the quarterback for being late on a throw.—
Brad Biggs,
Chicago Tribune,
8 June 2025
Verb
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Delta blames a global IT outage last summer for its performance problems.—
Christopher Elliott,
Forbes.com,
14 Sep. 2025
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The author compromises our trust in his appeal — likely unconsciously — by his blaming only one side.—
U T Readers,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
13 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Rail (at or against).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rail%20%28at%20or%20against%29. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.
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