sermonizing

Verb

sermonize (third-person singular simple present sermonizes, present participle sermonizing, simple past and past participle sermonized)

1. (intransitive) To speak in the manner of a sermon; to preach; to propagate one's morality or opinions with speech.
   • And doe not our Prelates thus, when […] they disgrace and traduce Preaching, calling it in scorne, Sermonizing?1636, Henry Burton, For God, and the King, Amsterdam: J.F. Stam, page 150

   Synonyms:

   moralize

2. (transitive) To preach a sermon to (somebody); to give (somebody) instruction or admonishment on the basis of one's morality or opinions.
   • He wishes, I suppose, to sermonize me: but I shall not give him an opportunity—1798, Thomas Holcroft, He’s Much to Blame, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, act IV, scene 11, pages 68–69

   Synonyms:

   lecture, pontificate, preachify

3. (transitive) To say in the manner of a sermon or lecture.
   • “Children, children! Woe, how you do sin!” Mrs. Kavarsky sermonized. “Come now, obey an older person […]”1896, Abraham Cahan, chapter 7, in Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto, New York: Appleton, page 151
4. (intransitive) To inculcate rigid rules.
   • If you consider my letters in their true light as conveying to you the advice of a Friend, who sincerely wishes you happiness, and desires to promote your pleasures, you will both read and attend them; but, if you consider them in their opposite, and very false light, as the dictates of a morose...1748, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Letters to His Son, 6th edition, London: J. Dodsley, published 1775, Volume 1, Letter 106, p. 309