browbeat

WOTD – 12 January 2008

English

Alternative forms

• brow-beat

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈbraʊ.biːt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

browbeat (third-person singular simple present browbeats, present participle browbeating, simple past browbeat, past participle browbeaten)

1. (transitive) To bully in an intimidating, bossy, or supercilious way.

   Though the teacher browbeat all the children, they still acted out during the lesson.

Synonyms

• (to bully in an intimidating way): bully, cow, domineer, intimidate

Related terms

• browbeater

Translations

to bully in an intimidating way

• Bulgarian: сплашвам (bg) (splašvam)
• Catalan: intimidar (ca)
• Czech: zastrašovat
• Dutch: intimideren (nl), inschuchteren
• Finnish: pelotella (fi), tyrannisoida (fi), pomottaa (fi)
• French: intimider (fr)
• German: einschüchtern (de)

• Greek: αποπαίρνω (el) (apopaírno)
• Polish: zastraszyć, zastraszać
• Portuguese: intimidar (pt)
• Russian: запугивать (ru) impf (zapúgivatʹ), пугать (ru) impf (pugátʹ), стращать (ru) impf (straščátʹ), наводить страх (ru) impf (navodítʹ strax)
• Scottish Gaelic: sàraich
• Spanish: intimidar (es)
• Swedish: köra med, tyrannisera (sv)

References

• browbeat in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• browbeat in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913