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Definition of "admonish" []

  • To reprove gently but earnestly. (verb-transitive)
  • To counsel (another) against something to be avoided; caution. (verb-transitive)
  • To remind of something forgotten or disregarded, as an obligation or a responsibility. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "admonish" in a sentence
  • "Merriam-Webster editor at large Peter Sokolowski says news stories about a member of Congress who shouted "You lie!" at the President sent the word admonish to the top of the list of frequently looked-up words in the online dictionary."
  • "Staring at the nude female sunbather fifteen floors below, her tattooed backside exposed so that everyone in the surrounding high-rises could admire or cajole or admonish from the windows next to their cubicles, office workers on every floor calling friends or documenting the view with cell-phone cameras, I realized that no matter how holy or removed from the everyday we might be, we are all rubberneckers to the mundane absurdities that materialize seemingly out of nowhere."
  • "In another "consensually-made recording," Andrew Russo was said to "admonish" Anthony Russo for taking part in a sitdown with the Gambino family over the stabbing of a Colombo associate."