browbeat
verbUK, US /ˈbɹaʊ.biːt/
Etymology From brow + beat.
1
To bully in an intimidating, bossy, or supercilious way.
- Though the teacher browbeat all the children, they still acted out during the lesson.
- Beware lest thy mind be swayed by the brow-beating of the Demons.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 26:
2 more examples
- Dudley Fitts reared far back, pronouncing her [Laura Riding] with “few equals” when it came to “browbeating an audience into conviction by sheer force of arrogance, among any poets living or dead.”1993 November 28, Carol Muske, quoting Dudley Fitts, “Laura Riding Roughshod”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Autistics don’t need cognitive behavioral training to help us not be rules by our emotions. In fact, most of us have been browbeaten into ignoring our feelings too much.2022, Devon Price, chapter 2, in Michele Eniclerico, editor, Unmasking Autism, New York: Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 74:
- Derived terms
- browbeater