scold
UK/ˈskəʊ̯ld//ˈskoʊ̯ld/
scold noun: a person who habitually scolds, in particular a troublesome and angry woman. Also the misconstruction of scald.
Noun
scold (plural scolds)
- A person who habitually scolds, in particular a troublesome and angry woman.
- A ſclaunderous tunge, a tunge of a ſkolde,
Worketh more miſchiefe than can be tolde;
That, if I wiſt not to be controlde,
Yet ſomwhat to ſay I dare well be bolde,c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c. - “Well, I won’t have it, and that’s enough.” She laughed, for her voice had a little been that of the professional scold.1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part II, XVIII [Uniform ed., p. 196]
- Synonyms:
- Karen, social justice warrior, wokescold, AWFUL, shrew
- A ſclaunderous tunge, a tunge of a ſkolde,
Verb
scold (third-person singular simple present scolds, present participle scolding, simple past and past participle scolded)
- To rebuke angrily.
- I advise that you refrain from using that kind of language at home, lest your mother scold you.
- A week elapsed before she could see Elizabeth without scolding her —1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC
- Of birds, to make harsh vocalisations in aggression.
- Of birds, to make vocalisations that resemble human scolding.
- [T]he merry songsters of the wood now filled the air with their jubilee; the nutcracker began his monotonous clattering, the chaffinches and the wrens sang high in the sky, the blackcock scolded and blustered loudly, the thrush sang his mocking songs and libellous ditties about everybody, but...1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 89
Also used as
scold is also the misconstruction of scald.
scold meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Tagalog
scold in Hindi
- rebuke
- फटकारना phaṭkārnā, डाँटना ḍā̃ṭnā
scold in Tamil
- rebuke
- திட்டு tiṭṭu
scold in Urdu
- rebuke
- ڈانٹنا ḍā̃ṭnā
scold in Tagalog
- rebuke
- pagalitan, pagsabihan
More languagesFewer languages
- scold in Arabic
- اِمْرَأَة سَلِيطَة, وَبَّخَ wabbaḵa
- scold in Thai
- ดุ dù, ด่า dàa
- scold in Vietnamese
- mắng, chửi
- scold in Myanmar
- ဆို hcui, ဆူ hcu, မာန် man, မြည် mrany
Examples of scold in a sentence
- Near the pond was the ducking-stool where many a village scold had her tongue temporarily stilled.1980, Robert Dougall, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 379:
- Consider the contrast with the United States, where deficit scolds dominated Beltway discourse in 2010–2011 but never managed to dictate the terms of political debate […]2015 September 14, Paul Krugman, “Labour's dead centre [print version: International New York Times, 15 September 2015, p. 9]”, in The New...
- She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
Synonyms of scold
Forms of scold
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scolds |
| alternative form | scould |
| alternative form | scolde |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scolds |
| present participle | scolding |
| past participle | scolded |
| past | scolded |
Origin of scold
The noun is from Middle English scold(e), skald(e), first attested in the 12th or 13th century (as scold, scolde, skolde, skald). The verb is from Middle English scolden, first attested in the late 1300s. Most dictionaries derive the verb from the noun and say the noun is probably from Old Norse skald (“poet”) (cognate with Icelandic skáld (“poet, scop”)), as skalds sometimes wrote insulting poems, though another view is that the Norse and English words are cognate to each other and to Old High German skeltan (whence Modern German schelten (“to scold, chide”)), Old Dutch skeldan (whence Modern Dutch schelden (“to scold, berate”)), all inherited from Proto-Germanic *skeldaną (“scold”).
Words formed from scold
Words that rhyme with scold
Questions about scold
- What does scold mean?
- Scold means a person who habitually scolds, in particular a troublesome and angry woman.
- What is scold in Hindi?
- Scold in Hindi is फटकारना (phaṭkārnā), डाँटना (ḍā̃ṭnā). See Scold meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use scold in a sentence?
- Near the pond was the ducking-stool where many a village scold had her tongue temporarily stilled.
- What part of speech is scold?
- Scold can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce scold?
- Scold is pronounced /ˈskəʊ̯ld/ (UK).
- What is the plural of scold?
- The plural of scold is scolds.
Words near scold in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scold (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scold.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scold.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scold. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.