Other forms: reproached, reproaches, reproaching
To reproach is to tell somebody with sorrow that they have let you down. Reproach him for it, a look of reproach, beyond reproach.
The sorrow is what separates it from blame: a reproach comes from somebody who expected better. Beyond reproach is the fixed phrase and means nobody could find fault, and it is high praise about conduct rather than about ability.
1verbreproachTo tell somebody with sorrow that they have let you down.
“His mother reproached him for forgetting her birthday.”
reproach is a rebuking.
Old French reprochier comes from a Latin phrase meaning to bring near, in the sense of casting something up at somebody.
Old French
reprochier
Middle English
reprochen
English, today
reproach
From Middle English reprochen, from Old French reprochier. From Middle English reprochen, from Old French reprochier (Modern French reprocher).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA