criticise

«criticise» in Mova's school dictionary: bad or wrong about someone or something — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (criticise, criticises, criticised, criticising); US spelling criticize

meaning for a pupil

1) To say what you think is bad or wrong about someone or something. tree →

2) To judge the good and bad points of a book, film or work (to review it). tree →

sense in the lessons

In school: give helpful feedback rather than unkind criticism; criticise ideas, not people. In formal exam voice: «Criticise the argument». In news: people criticise the government. Phrases: be criticised for, constructive criticism.

examples

• The coach criticised the team for being late. tree →
• Don't criticise your friend's drawing; help instead. tree →
• The new road was criticised by local people. tree →
• Critics criticised the film for being too long. tree →
• It's easy to criticise but hard to do better. tree →
• We learned to criticise arguments, not the person. tree →

note

UK spelling -ise, US -ize. Noun: criticism; person: critic; adjective: critical. Criticise is followed by «for»: criticised for being late.

In the corpora

• In 1517 Martin Luther, a German monk, criticised the Church for selling forgiveness, and printing spread his ideas quickly.
• A personal attack criticises the person instead of the idea, and it does not answer their reasons.
• Choosing only the "most useful" people is often criticised as unfair, because every person has equal worth.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «criticise» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.