censure

[sen-sher] /ˈsɛn ʃər/

noun

strong or vehement expression of disapproval:

The newspapers were unanimous in their censure of the tax proposal.

an official reprimand, as by a legislative body of one of its members.

verb (used with object), censured, censuring.

to criticize or reproach in a harsh or vehement manner:

She is more to be pitied than censured.

verb (used without object), censured, censuring.

to give censure, adverse criticism, disapproval, or blame.

Origin

1350-1400; Middle English < Latin cēnsūra censor's office, assessment, equivalent to cēns(us) past participle of cēnsēre (see censor) + -ūra -ure

Related forms

censurer, noun

censureless, adjective

miscensure, verb, miscensured, miscensuring.

precensure, verb (used with object), precensured, precensuring.

procensure, adjective

supercensure, noun

uncensured, adjective

uncensuring, adjective

Can be confused

blame, censure, condemn (see synonym study at blame)

censer, censor, censure, sensor.

Synonyms

1. condemnation, reproof, reproach, reprehension, rebuke, reprimand, stricture, animadversion. See abuse. 3. reprove, rebuke, chide. See blame, reprimand.

Antonyms

1–3. praise.

Examples from the web for censure

But do not risk the censure of your supervisor by refusing to extend co-authorship.
Americans censure nepotism on the one hand and practice it as much as they can on the other.
The fact is plain that other great figures have led far more disordered lives and received far less censure.
censure by a professional body is grounds for losing an honour, government officials explain.
The fact is that neither moral censure nor fears about safety will stop people from wanting to look better.
The scale of the transformation is such that an ever-expanding literature has emerged to censure or celebrate it.
Seldom, perhaps, does the word appear except in a phrase of censure.
No ill-timed censure ever indiscreetly checked the pupil's communicative temper.
He invites excess, whether of praise or of censure.
Instead of arousing fear or censure, they are a call to action.

British Dictionary definitions for censure

censure

/ˈsɛnʃə/

noun

severe disapproval; harsh criticism

verb

to criticize (someone or something) severely; condemn

Derived Forms

censurer, noun

Word Origin

C14: from Latin cēnsūra, from cēnsēre to consider, assess

Word Origin and History for censure

late 14c., originally ecclesiastical, from Latin censura "judgment, opinion," also "office of a censor," from census, past participle of censere "appraise, estimate, assess" (see censor (n.)). General sense of "a finding of fault and an expression of condemnation" is from c.1600.

1580s, from censure (n.) or else from French censurer, from censure (n.). Related: Censured; censuring.

Such men are so watchful to censure, that the have seldom much care to look for favourable interpretations of ambiguities, to set the general tenor of life against single failures, or to know how soon any slip of inadvertency has been expiated by sorrow and retractation; but let fly their fulminations, without mercy or prudence, against slight offences or casual temerities, against crimes never committed, or immediately repented. [Johnson, "Life of Sir Thomas Browne," 1756]