told off

Definition of told offnext
past tense of tell off

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for told off
Verb
  • On Sunday, with her lip cut up and puffy, Barber thanked Grasso for the rematch.
    Kyle Newman, Denver Post, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Or mixed up the sausage filling and Justin’s potato into a kind of hash brown patty, fried them off like Brittany did with the livermush crostini last week, cut up the collard greens into ribbons, and put that on top of the potato and pork?
    Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 31 Mar. 2026
Verb
  • These beautiful styles will take you from day to night, dressed up or dressed down.
    Tory Johnson, ABC News, 23 Mar. 2026
  • The Burlesque star dressed down her jewels in a effortlessly cool black sweat set.
    Christina Perrier, InStyle, 10 Mar. 2026
Verb
  • On that night in March, to the surprise of nobody, Arsenal ran their mid-table Premier League hosts ragged, beating them 5-1, with Henry and Freddie Ljungberg scoring twice, and Kolo Toure netting the other.
    Dan Sheldon, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2026
Verb
  • Being chewed out was nothing new, part of life as a football player.
    Nick Kosmider, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2025
  • 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
Verb
  • He’s scolded by fox and hawk for being out in the rain, but Bear shares his berries with Marvin, who gets a ride home on the back of Deer.
    Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 28 Mar. 2026
  • Tsuyoshi Tahara founded the inaugural race in 2010 in Kyotanabe city, Kyoto prefecture – inspired by a childhood teacher who once scolded him for playing with an office chair.
    Trista Kurniawan, CNN Money, 28 Mar. 2026
Verb
  • At a hearing two days after the government dropped its charges against Baraka, the judge upbraided Stephen Demanovich, a federal prosecutor who had been assigned the case.
    Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2026
  • During cross-examination, he was upbraided for long answers that did not immediately answer the question he had been asked.
    Greg O'Keeffe, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2025
Verb
  • The lawsuit also said that when complaints were made about the harassment, they were not properly investigated and the employees were subject to retaliation, including being given double shifts, being accused of wrongdoing and being berated and yelled at by supervisors.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Some have cut off communication, walked away from him, or berated him.
    Anthony Man, Sun Sentinel, 21 Mar. 2026
Verb
  • The appeals court found that the sentence punished Peters for maintaining that there was fraud in the 2020 election.
    ABC News, ABC News, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Any violence committed against an uninvolved third party in response to a crime is itself a new crime that can be justly repelled or punished.
    Connor Okeeffe, Oc Register, 29 Mar. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Told off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/told%20off. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster