vituperate

verb

1. (formal, transitive)To criticize (someone or something) in an abusive or harsh manner.

   “They loue not porke, nor ſwynes fleſh, but doth vituperate and abhore it, yet for all this, they will eate Adders, which is a kind of Serpentes, as well as any other Chriſtyan man dwelling in Roome, and other highe countreys, for Adders fleſhe there, is called fyſhe of the mountayne, this notwithſtanding Phiſicke doeth approbate adders fleſh good to be eaten, […]”

   “[M]y beſt Lady, you knovv, and many better men then he have told you, that I am ſo far from vvronging you vvith a falſhood, that I have maintained your honor vvith the hazzard of my life againſt any that ever durſt vituperate you; […]”

   “[T]he Rites of conſecrating, or crovvning Kings, and taking Oath of them to perform the Lavvs of their Government, and to maintain the Rites of Holy Church, […] is no lame and lazy Ceremony, made up onely of extern pomp, but of neceſſary and renovvned conſequence; vvhich thoſe that vituperate are Children, and thoſe that vvould overthrovv are Devils; becauſe therein accuſers of antient Piety and Prudence, and enemies to Mankind, vvho generally have the Prieſthood in higheſt honour.”

   “We are not ignorant that it has long obtained as a principle amongst writers and declaimers of a certain class, to poison as much as they can the public mind, not only by representing royalty in this nation as superfluous and ridiculous, but by vituperating, and vilifying, by every false, ridiculous, and scandalous aspersion within the compass of their gross and sterile imaginations, the person, conduct, public and domestic pursuits of our most gracious monarch.”

   “['T]is false as hell, and thou vituperatest thine own sex in saying so, lady. Wert thou the daughter of a king, instead of a proud Popish Knight, I would say so to thy face.”

2. (formal, transitive)To attack (someone or something) with abusive language; to revile, to vilify.

   “A bane to merit, he exerts himſelf to the deſtruction of every valuable virtue in literature, or in life: his pen is ne'er employed but in the abuſing and vituperating the innocent and meritorious; and like a voracious flie, he leaves and diſregards every accompliſhment, to fix upon the only ſore.”

   “[…] I learn that I have enemies, who, not content to hate, are sedulous to vituperate me.”

   “The yeomen separated the incensed priests, who continued to raise their voices, vituperating each other in bad Latin, which the Prior delivered the more fluently, and the Hermit with the greater vehemence.”

   “[T]he Senator from Rhode Island, in charge of the bill, had been denounced and vituperated, and had shown remarkable patience in enduring these repeated insults; […]”

3. (formal, intransitive)To use abusive or harsh words.

   “Now the Brito-Celtic Church as Mr. [Henry Charles] Coote calls it, the Church which Augustine vituperated, is a fact, but I should certainly like to have some proof of the existence of the other, the "Early English Church" which Augustine ignored. And I should further like to know why he vituperated in the one case and ignored in the other.”

   “Agnolo [Pandolfini] has logic on his side in the very extreme to which he goes; but, like most of his successors in this dangerous line of remark, he loses his temper and begins to vituperate, though his rage is not against the weaker being whom he frankly despises [i.e., woman], but against the men who do not despise her.”

   “Governor "Ben" Tillman of South Carolina vituperated back with great fluency and the scene ended by a mutual promise to finish the discussion with more lethal weapons.”

adj

1. (formal)Of, characterized by, or relating to abusive or harsh criticism.

   “The glorification of women as mothers informed the propaganda of the Nazi years but social reality told a different story. In 1933, a vituperate campaign against 'double earners' forced married women, whose husbands were employed, out of the labour market.”

   “Faced with a vituperate Serbian nationalism and the despotic actions of Slobodan Milošević, who took power in the late 1980s, Slovenia and Croatia seceded from federal Yugoslavia in June 1991[…].”

   “At the same time, a broadsheet entitled Memoirs of the Political Life of Robert Alexander and others was published anonymously but was evidently written by Borthwick because he sent a copy to Henry Cockburn. It was a vituperate attack on Alexander, accusing him of being a ne'er-do-well fraudster.”

2. (formal, rare)Which has been abusively or harshly criticized; also, deserving harsh criticism.

   “These, and many more that might be adduced, are instances of the obscure though not absolutely impervious medium through which the present age views ancient history; and at the head of these illusions, is the great illusion of all, on wealth and poverty. Wealth was to be discreditable, unmanly, vituperate, because it was found greatly to indispose men to be active thieves. […] This is the sorry explanation, of the ancient theory of heroic poverty.”