Meanings
plural expostulations
- countableuncountableThe act of reasoning earnestly in order to dissuade or remonstrate.
The official declined to listen to any expostulations.
1921 October, Maxwell H. H. Macartney, “An Ex-Enemy in Berlin to-Day”, in The Atlantic2 more examples
[H]eedless of my expostulations and the growling thunder, and the great drops that began to plash around her, she remained calling, at intervals, and then listening, and then crying outright.
1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter IX, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 188At 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 […]
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 4, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
Synonyms & antonyms
nounthe act of expressing earnest opposition or protest
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinexpostulātiōnem
- Englishexpostulation
From Latin expostulātiōnem, accusative singular of expostulātiō (“complaint, expostulation”), from expostulō (“demand, expostulate”), from ex (“out of, from”) + postulō (“demand or claim”). See expostulate.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with expostulation
Cite this entry
expostulation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/expostulation
“expostulation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/expostulation. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “expostulation,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/expostulation.
Source: expostulation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.