browbeat
verb (used with object)
to intimidate by overbearing looks or words; bully.
was browbeating
-
past progressiveof browbeat.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There was browbeating, and interruptions aimed at forcing a candidate’s thought-train off its tracks:
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2015
That same time in Belgium, Armstrong was browbeating confidants to forget things they might have heard.
From New York Times ● Aug. 24, 2012
Chisumpi begged me to sleep at a village about half a mile behind: his son was browbeating him on some domestic affair, and the older man implored me to go.
From The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 by Horace Waller
Stener was browbeating and frightening his poor underling, a better man than himself, in order to get back this sixty-thousand-dollar check.
From The Financier, a novel by Theodore Dreiser
To think of her standing up and lashing her cousin in that way when he was browbeating a railroad man!”
From Whispering Smith by N. C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth
