CENSURE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does censure mean? 

• CENSURE (noun)
  The noun CENSURE has 2 senses:

1. harsh criticism or disapproval

2. the state of being excommunicated

  Familiarity information: CENSURE used as a noun is rare.

• CENSURE (verb)
  The verb CENSURE has 1 sense:

1. rebuke formally

  Familiarity information: CENSURE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CENSURE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Harsh criticism or disapproval

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

animadversion; censure

Hypernyms ("censure" is a kind of...):

condemnation; disapprobation (an expression of strong disapproval; pronouncing as wrong or morally culpable)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "censure"):

interdict (an ecclesiastical censure by the Roman Catholic Church withdrawing certain sacraments and Christian burial from a person or all persons in a particular district)

Derivation:

censure (rebuke formally)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of being excommunicated

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

censure; exclusion; excommunication

Hypernyms ("censure" is a kind of...):

rejection (the state of being rejected)

• CENSURE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they censure    ... he / she / it censures   
Past simple: censured   
Past participle: censured   
-ing form: censuring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rebuke formally

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

censure; criminate; reprimand

Hypernyms (to "censure" is one way to...):

criticise; criticize; knock; pick apart (find fault with; express criticism of; point out real or perceived flaws)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "censure"):

animadvert (express blame or censure or make a harshly critical remark)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

censure (harsh criticism or disapproval)

 Context examples 

He saw that Emma had soon made it out, and found it highly entertaining, though it was something which she judged it proper to appear to censure; for she said, “Nonsense! for shame!”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Do not, my dearest Elinor, let your kindness defend what I know your judgment must censure.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I do not censure her opinions; but there certainly is impropriety in making them public.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

After all, what censure could be put upon her?

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I am not ignorant how much I have been censured for mentioning this last particular.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The latter was not to be censured for his misjudgment.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Then, you could dare censure for my sake?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Yes, novels; for I will not adopt that ungenerous and impolitic custom so common with novel-writers, of degrading by their contemptuous censure the very performances, to the number of which they are themselves adding—joining with their greatest enemies in bestowing the harshest epithets on such works, and scarcely ever permitting them to be read by their own heroine, who, if she accidentally take up a novel, is sure to turn over its insipid pages with disgust.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The younger archers, with their coats of mail thrown aside, their brown or flaxen hair tossing in the wind, and their jerkins turned back to give free play to their brawny chests and arms, stood in lines, each loosing his shaft in turn, while Johnston, Aylward, Black Simon, and half-a-score of the elders lounged up and down with critical eyes, and a word of rough praise or of curt censure for the marksmen.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)