catechize

present singular third person catechizes · participle present catechizing · participle past catechized · past catechized · alternative UK catechise

1. transitiveTo give oral instruction, especially of religion; (specifically) by the formal question-and-answer method; in the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church, to teach the catechism as preparation for confirmation.
2. transitiveTo question at length.

   Putting a strong American inflection into the French which I usually talked with an unmistakable British accent, I catechised the Baron as to the date of the church's building, its dimensions, and other details which an American tourist would be certain to want to know.

   1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Soul of Laploshka”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 73

   1 more example

   She promised herself to ascertain thoroughly, after they should be comfortably settled in the ship, the animus with which the book was to be written. She was a very good sailor and she liked to talk at sea; there her husband would not be able to escape from her, and she foresaw the manner in which she should catechise him.

   1888 September 29, Henry James, “[The Modern Warning.] Chapter V.”, in The Aspern Papers; Louisa Pallant; The Modern Warning, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 260