Other forms: reproved, reproving, reproves
To reprove is to tell somebody off gently, showing that you disapprove. Reprove him mildly, a reproving look, reprove her for it.
It is milder than rebuke and personal rather than official, so a look can reprove as well as words can. It is a formal, slightly literary word and takes for after it.
1verbreproveTo tell somebody off gently, showing that you disapprove of what they did, without any formal or official rebuke.
“She would reprove him with a look rather than a word.”
reprove is a telling off.
Old French reprover comes from Latin reprobare, to reject or condemn; it is a doublet of reprobate.
Latin
reprobāre
Middle French
reprouver
Anglo-Norman
reprover
Middle English
repreven
English, today
reprove
From Middle English repreven, reproven, from Anglo-Norman reprover, Middle French reprouver, from Latin reprobāre. a doublet of reprobate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA