Other forms: chided, chides, chiding
To chide is to tell somebody off mildly. Chide him gently, chided for being late, a chiding tone.
It is literary and gentle, and the past tense is chided, though chid and chidden survive in older writing. The scolding it names is affectionate more often than not.
1verbchideTo tell somebody off mildly.
“She chided her son for leaving his muddy boots on the carpet.”
chide is a scolding.
Old English cidan means to quarrel or rebuke.
Old English
ċīdan — to chide, reprove, rebuke; blame, contend, strive, quarrel, complain
Middle English
chiden — to chide, rebuke, disapprove, criticize; complain, grumble, dispute; argue, debate, dispute, quarrel
English, today
chide
From Middle English chiden (“to chide, rebuke, disapprove, criticize; complain, grumble, dispute; argue, debate, dispute, quarrel”), from Old English ċīdan (“to chide, reprove, rebuke; blame, contend, strive, quarrel, complain”). Cognate with German kiden (“to sound”); Old High German kīdal (“wedge”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA