Meanings
comparative more vituperative · superlative most vituperative
- Marked by harsh abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing.
Floris gave the play a vituperative review laced with frequent personal insults.
5 more examples
[…] ten times in a day calling the child of his prayers TRISTRAM!—Melancholy dissyllable of sound! which, to his ears, was unison to Nincompoop, and every name vituperative under heaven.
1759, [Laurence Sterne], chapter 19, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 2nd (1st London) edition, volume I, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], published 1760, →OCLC[…] Lady Mary saw as clearly into the bodies, and I believe souls, of every servant who approached her, as if they had been cased in chrystal. And she saw so many foulnesses there, and so many aberrations, that Lady Mary’s language was almost wholly moral and vituperative.
1792, Robert Bage, “chapter 81”, in Man As He Is, volume 3, London: William Lane, page 257...and there were few words of vituperative abuse furnished by a lady's vocabulary (and even some beyond it) that were not launched upon his head, as a "city tradesman," that of the "puling baby," his wife, his flirting sister and her wittol husband;...
1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 3051875, William Gifford, footnote to Act IV, Scene 2 of Every Man in His Humour in The Works of Ben Jonson, London: Bickers & Son, Volume I, p. 106, […] our ancestors, who were not very delicate, nor, generally speaking, much overburthened with respect for the feelings of foreigners, had a number of vituperative appellations derived from their real or supposed ill qualities, of many of which the precise import cannot now be ascertained.
[…] she […] proceeded, without a pause, to pour out a rolling flood of vituperative Latin, in which reproof, indignation, and sarcastic pleasantries followed one another with astonishing volubility.
1928, Giles Lytton Strachey, “Chapter 9”, in Elizabeth and Essex, New York: Harcourt, Brace, page 144Synonyms: vituperating, abusive, censorious, invective, ranting, scolding
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveMarked by harsh abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Formed from vituperātus, perfect passive participle of Latin vituperō (“to blame, to censure”) + -ive; by surface analysis, vituperate + -ive.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
German schmähend, tadelnd
- schmähendmarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- tadelndmarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- scharfzüngigmarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
Irish scallóideach, aithiseach
- scallóideachmarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- aithiseachmarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- spídiúilmarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
Māori ngutu momoho
- ngutu momohomarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
Norwegian Bokmål dadlende, klandrende
- dadlendemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- klandrendemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- kritiserendemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- lastendemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- skjellendemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
Polish potępiający
- potępiającymarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
Russian оскорби́тельный, бранный
- оскорби́тельный (oskorbítelʹnyj)marked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- бранный (brannyj)marked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
Swedish smädande, förolämpande
- smädandemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- förolämpandemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- hätskmarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- klandrandemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- nedsättandemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
- skymfandemarked by harsh spoken or written abuse; abusive, often with ranting or railing
Cite this entry
vituperative. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vituperative
“vituperative.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vituperative. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vituperative,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vituperative.
Source: vituperative on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.