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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
reproach
I.noun
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be above suspicion/reproach/criticism etc
▪ The motives were above reproach since a large sum was raised for deserving charities every year.
▪ You must be above suspicion of any impropriety.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Fernandez argued the reproaches were harsh and unfair.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He had a steely streak but his morals and scruples were beyond reproach.
▪ He was innocent and wished to purge himself of the reproach.
▪ I have said that Reagan was rarely moved to anger or reproach.
▪ Noah himself is beyond reproach, it is true.
▪ Nor was Bayezid alone held up to reproach.
▪ The Alumni Club typically enjoys a reputation beyond reproach.
▪ The motives were above reproach since a large sum was raised for deserving charities every year.
▪ The white stubble on his fleshless jaw was a reproach to my twenty-four years and suddenly I felt an inadequate city-bred softie.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Emma Quashie reproached him from back in the doorway where she had gone, too lazy to chase the boy.
▪ Huy entered his house, and its drabness both depressed and reproached him.
▪ They chivvy and reproach each other as we eat.
▪ They did not tell her this, but they reproached her for hiding her terrible state from them, her own sisters.
▪ You and Fred have nothing to reproach yourselves with.
▪ Zampano and Gelsomina are not exceptions, as people reproach me for creating.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Reproach

Reproach \Re*proach"\ (r?-pr?ch"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reproached (-pr?cht"); p. pr. & vb. n. Reproaching.] [F. reprocher, OF. reprochier, (assumed) LL. reproriare; L. pref. re- again, against, back + prope near; hence, originally, to bring near to, throw in one's teeth. Cf. Approach.]

  1. To come back to, or come home to, as a matter of blame; to bring shame or disgrace upon; to disgrace. [Obs.]

    I thought your marriage fit; else imputation, For that he knew you, might reproach your life.
    --Shak.

  2. To attribute blame to; to allege something disgraceful against; to charge with a fault; to censure severely or contemptuously; to upbraid.

    If ye be reproached for the name of Christ.
    --1 Peter iv. 14.

    That this newcomer, Shame, There sit not, and reproach us as unclean.
    --Milton.

    Mezentius . . . with his ardor warmed His fainting friends, reproached their shameful flight. Repelled the victors.
    --Dryden.

    Syn: To upbraid; censure; blame; chide; rebuke; condemn; revile; vilify.

Reproach

Reproach \Re*proach"\, n. [F. reproche. See Reproach, v.]

  1. The act of reproaching; censure mingled with contempt; contumelious or opprobrious language toward any person; abusive reflections; as, severe reproach.

    No reproaches even, even when pointed and barbed with the sharpest wit, appeared to give him pain.
    --Macaulay.

    Give not thine heritage to reproach.
    --Joel ii. 17.

  2. A cause of blame or censure; shame; disgrace.

  3. An object of blame, censure, scorn, or derision.

    Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
    --Neh. ii. 17.

    Syn: Disrepute; discredit; dishonor; opprobrium; invective; contumely; reviling; abuse; vilification; scurrility; insolence; insult; scorn; contempt; ignominy; shame; scandal;; disgrace; infamy.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
reproach

mid-14c., "a rebuke, blame, censure;" also "object of scorn or contempt;" c.1400, as "disgrace, state of disgrace," from Old French reproche "blame, shame, disgrace" (12c.), from reprochier "to blame, bring up against," said by some French etymologists to be from Vulgar Latin *repropiare, from Latin re- "opposite of" + prope "near" (see propinquity), with suggestions of "bring near to" as in modern "get in (someone's) face." But others would have it from *reprobicare, from Latin reprobus/reprobare (see reprobate (adj.)).

reproach

mid-14c., reprochen "to rebuke, reproach," from Anglo-French repruchier, Old French reprochier "upbraid, blame, accuse, speak ill of," from reproche (see reproach (n.)). Related: Reproached; reproaching.

Wiktionary
reproach

n. A mild rebuke, or an implied criticism. vb. 1 To criticize or rebuke someone. 2 To disgrace, or bring shame upon someone.

WordNet
reproach
  1. n. a mild rebuke or criticism; "words of reproach"

  2. disgrace or shame; "he brought reproach upon his family"

  3. v. express criticism towards; "The president reproached the general for his irresponsible behavior" [syn: upbraid]

Usage examples of "reproach".

Eastern troops, he recommended to their zeal the execution of his bloody design, which might be accomplished in his absence, with less danger, perhaps, and with less reproach.

If I am defeated, I shall at least not have incurred the reproach that of my own accord I deserted my post in an hour of crisis .

Americans, regardless of party affiliation or ideology, especially since the Supreme Courtprior to this casewas among the last institutions whose integrity remained above reproach.

Robert Penfold warned me the ship was to be destroyed, and I disbelieved and affronted him in return, and he never reproached me, not even by a look.

Our adversaries do not deny that even here there is a system of law and penalty: and surely we cannot in justice blame a dominion which awards to every one his due, where virtue has its honour, and vice comes to its fitting shame, in which there are not merely representations of the gods, but the gods themselves, watchers from above, and--as we read--easily rebutting human reproaches, since they lead all things in order from a beginning to an end, allotting to each human being, as life follows life, a fortune shaped to all that has preceded--the destiny which, to those that do not penetrate it, becomes the matter of boorish insolence upon things divine.

It is a very ancient reproach, suggested by the ignorance or the malice of infidelity, that the Christians allured into their party the most atrocious criminals, who, as soon as they were touched by a sense of remorse, were easily persuaded to wash away, in the water of baptism, the guilt of their past conduct, for which the temples of the gods refused to grant them any expiation.

That evening, reproached by associates and tortured by ambivalence, he committed suicide.

The note of reproach was so distinct in these words that Bernard stood staring.

When Bernard reproached himself for thinking too much of the girl, he drew comfort from the reflection that he was not thinking well.

Severus mounted the tribunal, sternly reproached them with perfidy and cowardice, dismissed them with ignominy from the trust which they had betrayed, despoiled them of their splendid ornaments, and banished them, on pain of death, to the distance of a hundred miles from the capital.

Barbarians were confounded by the image of their own patience and the masculine females, spitting in the faces of their sons and husbands, most bitterly reproached them for betraying their dominion and freedom to these pygmies of the south, contemptible in their numbers, diminutive in their stature.

She would have liked to point out to it in terms of passionate reproach that if he had only kept on turtling instead of parking provocatively in the exact middle of a dirt road she, Lorna Bland, sometimes called Blondie because of the inevitable alliteration, would not now be married to a long-legged, grunting maniac, capable of seeing life only through the lens of a camera.

If Aurelia had tacitly reproached herself to her husband with what were my crimes, and only mine--was it not my bounden duty to save her before it were too late?

Decidedly, the more I think of this excellent man, the more I reproach myself for the sort of malediction I bestowed on him when I awoke.

But Malemute Kid restrained himself, though there was a world of reproach in his eyes, and, bending over the dog, cut the traces.