Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use berate in a sentence

20 example sentences · verb

Berate means to chide or scold vehemently. Example: “What society tells people that they can “do whatever they want” to dissidents, and yet berates anyone for treating them well?”

Examples of berate by meaning

verbTo chide or scold vehemently.

  • What society tells people that they can “do whatever they want” to dissidents, and yet berates anyone for treating them well?
  • A thousand times I berated myself for being drawn into such a trap as I might have known these pits easily could be.1913 January–May, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Gods of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as...
  • Lenerengo, as usual, forgot everything else in the fiercer pleasure of berating her spouse.1917, Jack London, chapter 14, in Jerry of the Islands

More sentences with berate

  • If a student has an inappropriate question, whatever you do, do not berate them.From the entry them
  • In the bodycam footage he is heard using graphic language to berate her.From the entry graphic
  • Similarly, early twentieth-century US-American New Humanism—led by Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer More—berates American culture and education.2021, Anthony B. Pinn, editor, The Oxford Handbook of Humanism, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 303. From the entry New Humanism
  • Myers went over the top in the clubhouse, berating a reporter who questioned Myers' terminology.2007 August 26, Bruce Jenkins, “The Chronicle Sports Columnist Blog”, in San Francisco Chronicle, archived from the original on 10 Dec 2007. From the entry over the top
  • The frantic olive-branching of America while consistently berating black men has worn me down.2007, William Jelani Cobb, The Devil and Dave Chappelle: And Other Essays, page 15. From the entry olive-branch
  • Stop the armshouse!" she berates ("armshouse" being grime slang for violence).2005 August, Simon Reynolds, “A Life of Grime”, in Sia Michel, editor, Spin, New York, N.Y.: Spin Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 86. From the entry armshouse
  • The bad cop was Lump, who would threaten and berate the prisoner.2005, James S. Hirsch, Two Souls Indivisible, HMH, →ISBN. From the entry good cop–bad cop
  • He swashed out of the room, and presently we heard his angry voice berating his bearer.1910, Jerome Klapka Jerome, Robert Barr, Arthur Lawrence, The Idler: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine - Volume 37, page 1327. From the entry swash
  • Doherty was known to publicly berate litterbugs and upbraid motorists whose stranded cars prevented plows from clearing snow.2023 April 18, Sam Roberts, “John J. Doherty, Stalwart Sanitation Commissioner, Dies at 84”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from…. From the entry litterbug
  • In an impassioned rant in the New York Post last week, writer Elisabeth Vincentelli berated the ‘slobification’ of modern society.2015, King and Allen. From the entry slobification
  • Skinner berates her in front of Weasel Boy and CSM.1998 November 24, rmun...@yahoo.com, “The chaser? ”, in alt.tv.x-files (Usenet). From the entry Weasel Boy
  • The first truly gripping moment of the series occurred at a fire-pit recoupling, when Hugo berated Toby for his shabby treatment of Chloe.2021 August 1, Barbara Ellen, “The week in TV: Sexy Beasts; Love Is Blind: After the Altar; Professor T; India's Rape Scandal”, in The…. From the entry bro code
  • Chief Judge Jack Tuter, who oversees the 17th Judicial Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, released a statement over the weekend berating Ehrlich for her conduct.2018 April 23, Chuck Johnston, “Judge not allowed back to court after berating woman who died”, in CNN, archived from the original on 12…. From the entry jack
  • As one character is driving the other to work, the passenger berates the driver for not paying enough attention to her driverly duties.2013, Charles E. Gutenson, Church Worth Getting Up For, page 63. From the entry driverly
  • His mother had berated him mercilessly.2003, Vamik D Volkan, The Third Reich in the Unconscious. From the entry flatulate
  • To understand man as laughing guanine, as the tarsier that skipped a few grades, may be to berate us, may be to misanthropize.2001, Adrian Trehorse, The Last Angry White Man, page 342. From the entry misanthropize
  • A massive scandal has broken out over the purchase of Hungarian-made SVD “sniper” rifles by an American “GunTuber”- who recently berated others for price-gouging on online gun auction sites.2021 March 22, Andy Wolf and Todd Speyer, “Marine vet, ‘GunTuber’ called out for ‘hypocritically’ price gouging limited imports of…. From the entry GunTuber

Meaning of berate

  1. verb To chide or scold vehemently.

Full definition of berate

Questions about berate in a sentence

How do you use berate in a sentence?
Berate is used as a verb. For example: “What society tells people that they can “do whatever they want” to dissidents, and yet berates anyone for treating them well?”
What is a short sentence with berate?
“His mother had berated him mercilessly.”
What does berate mean?
Berate means to chide or scold vehemently.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: berate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use berate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/berate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.