expostulation
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin expostulātiōnem, accusative singular of expostulātiō (“complaint, expostulation”), from expostulō (“demand, expostulate”), from ex (“out of, from”) + postulō (“demand or claim”). See expostulate.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
Noun
expostulation (countable and uncountable, plural expostulations)
- The act of reasoning earnestly in order to dissuade or remonstrate.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 4:
- At length, by dint of much wriggling, and loud and incessant expostulations upon the unbecomingness of his hugging a fellow male in that matrimonial sort of style, I succeeded in extracting a grunt ...