lambaste
to severely criticize
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Mr Chavez went on to LAMBASTE the US for, over the past 100 years or so, imposing its will on its Latin American neighbours at the point of a gun whenever it didn't get its way.
(BBC News)
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Advertising groups LAMBASTE Net address expansion
(CNET.com)
(BBC News)
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Advertising groups LAMBASTE Net address expansion
(CNET.com)
Did you
know?
lambaste (also lambast)
verb
- to criticize someone or something severely
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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Etymology: Lambaste stems from lam (ultimately from Old Norse lemja "to beat, to lame") + baste "to thrash" and was allegedly British student slang for "beat it" in the 16th century.
Lambaster In Chief (LIC)
Seagrams' chairman Samuel Bronfman was a temperamental autocrat who presided over carefully scripted shareholders' meetings and openly argued with family members. "His swearing," a Seagrams executive once recalled, "could frequently be heard in my office when he lambasted his brother Allan on some matter or other."
One evening when the swearing reached an all-time high, I crossed the mezzanine floor to see what was wrong. I had no sooner looked around the corner into Mr. Sam's office when a telephone, torn out of its wall socket, went sailing by my head to crash on the floor. I thought Mr. Sam had gone raving mad. His language was unbelievable."
The problem? Allan, rather than Sam, had been invited to sit at the head table during a dinner in honour of the British Queen Mother.
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SYNONYMS
assail, criticize, denounce, lash into, pound, rake over the coals, rip into, scold, shellac, thrash
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"These days, politicians are inclined to lambaste each other in public."
verb
- to criticize someone or something severely
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Etymology: Lambaste stems from lam (ultimately from Old Norse lemja "to beat, to lame") + baste "to thrash" and was allegedly British student slang for "beat it" in the 16th century.
Lambaster In Chief (LIC)
Seagrams' chairman Samuel Bronfman was a temperamental autocrat who presided over carefully scripted shareholders' meetings and openly argued with family members. "His swearing," a Seagrams executive once recalled, "could frequently be heard in my office when he lambasted his brother Allan on some matter or other."
One evening when the swearing reached an all-time high, I crossed the mezzanine floor to see what was wrong. I had no sooner looked around the corner into Mr. Sam's office when a telephone, torn out of its wall socket, went sailing by my head to crash on the floor. I thought Mr. Sam had gone raving mad. His language was unbelievable."
The problem? Allan, rather than Sam, had been invited to sit at the head table during a dinner in honour of the British Queen Mother.
---
SYNONYMS
assail, criticize, denounce, lash into, pound, rake over the coals, rip into, scold, shellac, thrash
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"These days, politicians are inclined to lambaste each other in public."
