censure
part of speech
noun (censure, uncountable; a censure); verb (censure, censures, censured, censuring)
meaning for a pupil
1) (formal) Censure is strong, official criticism or disapproval. tree →
2) (formal) To censure someone is to criticise them strongly and officially, especially for something they did wrong. tree →
3) A vote of censure is when a parliament or group officially says it disapproves of a leader or member. tree →
sense in the lessons
In politics and law lessons censure is a formal punishment, for example when a parliament or the US Congress censures a member who has broken rules. In exam texts it is the stiff, formal word for «telling off». Phrases: vote of censure, face censure, public censure.
examples
- (formal) The council faced public censure for closing the library. tree →
- Parliament voted to censure the minister. tree →
- The referee was censured for unfair decisions. tree →
- The report censured the company for polluting the river. tree →
- Cheating at the competition brought censure from the judges. tree →
- The senator was formally censured by Congress. tree →
- (formal) The headteacher's censure was severe but fair. tree →
- If he is a true genius, he can bear the sharp voice of censure. tree →
note
Formal word; in everyday talk say «criticise» or «tell off». Trap: censure (to criticise) is NOT the same as censor (to remove or ban parts of books, films or news), though they sound alike.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «censure» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.