censure
pronunciation
How to pronounce censure in British English:
UK [ˈsenʃə(r)]
How to pronounce censure in American English:
US [ˈsenʃər]
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- Noun:
- harsh criticism or disapproval
- the state of being excommunicated
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- Verb:
- rebuke formally
Word Origin
- censure (n.)
- late 14c., originally ecclesiastical, from Latin censura "judgment, opinion," also "office of a censor," from census, past participle of censere "appraise, estimate, assess" (see censor (n.)). General sense of "a finding of fault and an expression of condemnation" is from c. 1600.
- censure (v.)
- 1580s, from censure (n.) or else from French censurer, from censure (n.). Related: Censured; censuring. Such men are so watchful to censure, that the have seldom much care to look for favourable interpretations of ambiguities, to set the general tenor of life against single failures, or to know how soon any slip of inadvertency has been expiated by sorrow and retractation; but let fly their fulminations, without mercy or prudence, against slight offences or casual temerities, against crimes never committed, or immediately repented. [Johnson, "Life of Sir Thomas Browne," 1756]
Antonym
Example
- 1. His remark prompted censure from the sentinels of fiscal rectitude .
- 2. For the international community , read china , which is reluctant to censure kim jong il .
- 3. It used it to escape all censure .
- 4. The judge could censure the firms or temporarily suspend them from seeking new audit clients .
- 5. More than 100 years after the english civil war , for instance , any prelate who was " enthusiastic " about religion attracted censure and suspicion .