denounce

«denounce» in Mova's school dictionary: To say publicly and strongly that something or someone is… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (denounce, denounces, denounced, denouncing)

meaning for a pupil

1) To say publicly and strongly that something or someone is wrong, bad or evil. tree →

2) To tell the authorities that someone has done something wrong, often to get them punished: «He denounced his neighbour to the police». tree →

sense in the lessons

In news and history: leaders denounce violence, unfair laws or cruelty; in some dark times of history, people were forced to denounce friends and family. In the Bible, prophets denounced kings who did wrong. In ethics lessons: it can be brave to denounce bullying. Phrases: «denounce as», «publicly denounce», «denounce someone to the authorities».

examples

• The mayor denounced the attack on the mosque. tree →
• The prophet denounced the king for his greed. tree →
• Pupils denounced the bullying in a school assembly. tree →
• The spy was denounced to the police. tree →
• Many people denounced the plan as unfair. tree →
• The church leaders denounced the cruelty to refugees. tree →
• Meanwhile, the townspeople got up a petition against him, and denounced him to the King, saying: tree →

note

Regular verb. Noun: «denunciation» (note the spelling change: «-nunc-», not «-nounc-»). Stronger than «criticise». Do not confuse with «renounce» (to give up something, such as a right or belief) or «announce» (to tell people news).

In the corpora

• He that denounceth his friends for the sake of flattery, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

Trees and pragmatics

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