browbeat

See also: brow-beat

English

WOTD – 12 January 2008

Alternative forms

• brow-beat

Etymology

From brow +‎ beat.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹaʊ.biːt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

browbeat (third-person singular simple present browbeats, present participle browbeating, simple past browbeat, past participle browbeaten)

1. (transitive) To bully in an intimidating, bossy, or supercilious way.

   Synonyms: bully, cow, domineer, intimidate; see also Thesaurus:intimidate

   Though the teacher browbeat all the children, they still acted out during the lesson.

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎^[1], London: Jonathan Cape, page 26:

     Beware lest thy mind be swayed by the brow-beating of the Demons.

   • 1993 November 28, Carol Muske, quoting Dudley Fitts, “Laura Riding Roughshod”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Dudley Fitts reared far back, pronouncing her [Laura Riding] with “few equals” when it came to “browbeating an audience into conviction by sheer force of arrogance, among any poets living or dead.”

Related terms

• browbeater

Translations

to bully in an intimidating way

• Arabic: أَخَافَ (ʔaḵāfa), أَرْعَبَ (ʔarʕaba), خَوَّفَ (ar) (ḵawwafa), أَرْهَبَ (ʔarhaba)
• Bulgarian: спла́швам (bg) impf (splášvam), спла́ша pf (spláša)
• Catalan: intimidar (ca)
• Czech: zastrašovat impf, zastrašit pf
• Dutch: intimideren (nl), inschuchteren, bruuskeren (nl)
• Finnish: pelotella (fi), tyrannisoida (fi), pomottaa (fi)
• French: intimider (fr), brusquer (fr)
• German: einschüchtern (de)
• Greek: αποπαίρνω (el) (apopaírno)
• Italian: intimidire (it)
• Polish: zastraszać (pl) impf, zastraszyć pf
• Portuguese: intimidar (pt)
• Russian: запу́гивать (ru) impf (zapúgivatʹ), пуга́ть (ru) impf (pugátʹ), страща́ть (ru) impf (straščátʹ), наводи́ть страх (ru) impf (navodítʹ strax)
• Scottish Gaelic: sàraich
• Spanish: intimidar (es)
• Swedish: köra med, tyrannisera (sv), hunsa (sv)
• Turkish: korkutmak (tr), göz korkutmak, göz dağı vermek (tr)
• Vietnamese: nạt nộ (vi), bắt nạt (vi)

References

• “browbeat”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “browbeat”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.