EXPOSTULATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does expostulate mean? 

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

1. reason with (somebody) for the purpose of dissuasion

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXPOSTULATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they expostulate    ... he / she / it expostulates   
Past simple: expostulated   
Past participle: expostulated   
-ing form: expostulating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reason with (somebody) for the purpose of dissuasion

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

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

argue; reason (present reasons and arguments)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

expostulation (the act of expressing earnest opposition or protest)

 Context examples 

The generous nature of Safie was outraged by this command; she attempted to expostulate with her father, but he left her angrily, reiterating his tyrannical mandate.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

There was not a soul there save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who seemed to be expostulating with them.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He has at present such a quantity that I have had myself to expostulate.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

As we left her standing in the road, Mr. Murdstone came up to where she was, and seemed to expostulate with her for being so moved.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Sometimes, when the day was very unfavourable, his sisters would expostulate.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Lord John Roxton expostulated on behalf of the wretched victims, and received nothing but threats and insults for his pains.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I expostulated with him, but in vain; neither would he so much as tell me who their new captain was.

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

"He licked the Flyin' Dutchman, an' you know him," Jimmy went on expostulating.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“But, man!” I expostulated, you advance the fact that it is your ship as though it were a moral right. You have never considered moral rights in your dealings with others. You surely do not dream that I’ll consider them in dealing with you?

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Did any one, be it East End rough or West End patrician, intrude within the outer ropes, this corp of guardians neither argued nor expostulated, but they fell upon the offender and laced him with their whips until he escaped back out of the forbidden ground.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)