harangue
/həˈraŋ
/noun
A lengthy and aggressive speech: they were subjected to a ten-minute harangue by two border guards...
- When he finished his lengthy harangue, everyone left, and Lohia wandered over to the nearest paanwallah to ask if Hanif was out yet.
- Sun boss Scott McNealy gave the DoJ his lengthiest harangue at the company's AGM for stockholders yesterday.
- They forbade ‘political speeches, harangues, or canvassing among the troops.’
Synonyms
tirade, lecture, diatribe, homily, polemic, rant, fulmination, broadside, verbal attack, verbal onslaught, invective;
criticism, berating, censure, admonition, reproval, admonishment;
exhortation, declamation, oration, peroration, speech, talk, address
informal sermon, tongue-lashing, spiel, pep talk
rare philippic, obloquy
verb [with object]
Lecture (someone) at length in an aggressive and critical manner: he harangued the public on their ignorance...
- When I go to meetings I get harangued by the public about speeding vehicles and by people asking for speed cameras to be installed.
- Ali, however, was on good terms, both with the gatekeepers and the guards, both of whom hailed and harangued him in a friendly manner as he stopped briefly to speak with them.
- As a former SFU undergrad, I enjoyed haranguing you privileged children/right wing ideologues (you all seem so young, you BC Young Liberallies).
Synonyms
deliver a tirade to, rant at, lecture, hold forth to, preach to, pontificate to, sermonize to, spout to, declaim to, give a lecture to;
berate, castigate, criticize, attack, lambaste, censure, pillory, upbraid
informal earbash, speechify to, preachify to, sound off to, spiel to
Derivatives
haranguer
- Instead it's always the ‘political’ ones that get the camera, the haranguers and culture-warriors with the blarney touch, able to motivate viewers' emotions with their words.
- Yes, he's a well-compensated good soldier, but that hardly seems to hinder half of this league's haranguers, so give the man his props.
- Picasso responds that he is not sure what such a picture would look like, at which point his haranguer takes a photo of his wife from his wallet and says, ‘‘There, you see, that is a picture of how she really is’.’
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French arenge, from medieval Latin harenga, perhaps of Germanic origin. The spelling was later altered to conform with French harangue (noun), haranguer (verb).