censorious

English

Etymology

From Latin cēnsōrius.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛnˈsɔɹiəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːɹiəs

Adjective

censorious (comparative more censorious, superlative most censorious)

1. Addicted to censure and scolding; apt to blame or condemn; severe in making remarks on others, or on their writings or manners.

   Synonyms: condemnatory, overcritical

   • 1680, Horace, translated by Earl of Roscommon [i.e., Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon], Horace’s Art of Poetry. […], London: […] Henry Herringman […], →OCLC, page 24:

     Be not too rigidly Cenſorious, / A ſtring may jarr in the beſt Maſters hand, / And the moſt skilfull Archer miſs his aim; / But in a Poem elegantly writ, / I will not quarrel with a ſlight miſtake, / Such as our Natures frailty may excuſe; [...]

   • 1842, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Lady Anne Granard, volume 1, page 223:

     ...she remembered the Countess of Rotheles's advice, and she well knew the very pointed words and looks Lady Allerton could assume when it suited her humour to be censorious, and was well aware that every particular of the evening's entertainment would be transmitted with a jaundiced tint to Rotheles Castle for the amusement and animadversion of her invalid brother.

   • 2013 September 20, Holly Baxter, “Is masturbating in public a laughing matter?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     But I'm guessing the girls didn't push for molestation charges because they were censorious prudes who would grow into knowing how to take such behaviour on the chin – they felt genuinely threatened, they took their concerns to court, and they deserved more than being told that they'd misread the situation all along.

   • 2021 December 17, Zoe Williams, “‘I like sex and am extremely good at it’ – the real crime of the ‘fellatio duchess’ in A Very British Scandal”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     Thanks to a censorious judge, the vile behaviour of the duke, a series of photographs showing the duchess performing fellatio on an unidentified man and her own altruistic, if high-handed, refusal to defend herself, the sexual ins and outs of this separation are a matter of incredibly detailed historical record.

2. Implying or expressing censure.

   censorious remarks

Antonyms

• uncensorious

Translations

apt to condemn

• Finnish: tuomitseva (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: tadelsüchtig

implying or expressing censure

• Finnish: suut tukkiva, sensuurihenkinen
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: achasánach

• Irish: ^{(please verify)} guthánach
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

References

• “censorious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “censorious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• coenurosis