How to Use berate in a Sentence

berate

verb
  • The chatter that berates them spends more time with them than you.
    — Ishmael Reed, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2023
  • Boyd would stand in the dining room and hear her coach berate her in her mind.
    — T. M. Luhrmann, Harper’s Magazine , 16 Feb. 2022
  • But just yelling and berating people, done that for eight years.
    — Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 21 Oct. 2025
  • Some voices want to protect, others are out to berate – or even kill.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 12 Nov. 2025
  • Some voices want to protect, others are out to berate – or even kill.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 20 Nov. 2025
  • Anyone standing near you has the right not to get screamed at, berated, or kicked in the nuts.
    — Frederick Dreier, Outside, 6 Dec. 2025
  • At some moments, her voice would bounce around the stage, berating her as her body clenched in horror.
    — Kally Patz, Vogue, 20 Oct. 2023
  • And men would berate her in messages and pleasure themselves while doing so.
    — Tom Teicholz, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2022
  • After her speech, a number of them berated her, bringing her to tears.
    — The Economist, 7 Sep. 2017
  • The South always thinks the north is putting them down and berating and cheating them.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 24 Oct. 2024
  • Dramatic footage taken from the house shows the hogtied man writhing on the floor as a woman berates him.
    — Fox News, 16 Apr. 2018
  • Not berating them about the past, but pushing them into the future.
    — Kerry Pieri, Harper's BAZAAR, 2 July 2015
  • Those two boys told the residents that they were hit for not doing chores fast enough and were berated by staff.
    — Laura Bauer, Kansas City Star, 26 Mar. 2024
  • The boys berated her, with the one in red concluding by calling her a welfare queen.
    — Zito Madu, GQ, 24 Apr. 2018
  • He was once stopped in a parking garage by a man who berated him and said the shooting never happened.
    — CBS News, 18 June 2019
  • The story is Bean came home one night in a foul humor and started berating his wife.
    — John MacCormack, San Antonio Express-News, 20 Jan. 2018
  • Yet tons of people called to berate and threaten him, to the point that police were notified.
    — Michael Fitzgerald, WIRED, 8 July 2018
  • Those gymnasts claimed that Han hit them, pushed them, threw his cellphone and shoes at them and berated them.
    — Juliet MacUr, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2023
  • The girl holds the family’s hamster in one hand and a razor blade in the other as three males berate her.
    — Chris Dehghanpoor, Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2024
  • Other prisoners shouted and banged on the bars of their cells, and the prison warden rushed to berate them.
    — Alma Guillermoprieto, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2022
  • That is why the president berates judges who don't reinterpret the laws in such a way as to keep him and his cronies out of prison.
    — Windsor Mann, TheWeek, 27 Feb. 2020
  • Berube lambasted his team after the coach’s challenge, berating his team for its lack of shots on net.
    — Joshua Kloke, New York Times, 17 Dec. 2025
  • She was berated for being too boy crazy in her teens, then for being too single in her 30s.
    — Alyssa Goldberg, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2025
  • But to enter the church, berate peaceful worshipers and scare children crosses a line.
    — Editorial, Boston Herald, 24 Jan. 2026
  • But to enter the church, berate peaceful worshipers and scare children crosses a line.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 21 Jan. 2026
  • Sylvia berated Lew all the way home to Weston.
    — Allegra Goodman, Literary Hub, 11 Feb. 2026
  • Some have cut off communication, walked away from him, or berated him.
    — Anthony Man, Sun Sentinel, 21 Mar. 2026
  • The sobbing victim appears to berate him and wave what looks to be a wooden board at him as he's being taken away.
    — CBS News, 18 Mar. 2021
  • The dancer claims she was berated and fired after recording a meeting due to a health condition, per the suit.
    — Althea Legaspi, Rolling Stone, 23 Aug. 2023
  • After about a minute, the woman guessed, Rodriguez climbed off but continued to berate her.
    — Raheem Hosseini, San Francisco Chronicle, 20 Feb. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'berate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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