lambaste

UK/læmˈbeɪst/US/læmˈbeɪst/

verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: lambasted, lambasting, lambastes

To lambaste is to criticise somebody harshly and publicly. Lambaste a decision.

It is a newspaper word, used of ministers and managers far more than in speech. To lambaste once meant to beat with a stick, and the sense of a thrashing survives.

Definitions of lambaste

1verblambasteTo criticise somebody harshly and publicly.C2
“The report lambasted every level of management.”

lambaste is an action.

Where it comes from

Probably lam plus baste, two seventeenth-century words that both meant to beat.

1637. Probably lam + baste

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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