English

Verb

inveigh ‎(third-person singular simple present inveighs, present participle inveighing, simple past and past participle inveighed)

1. (intransitive, with against or occasionally about, formerly also with on, at, upon) To complain loudly, to give voice to one's censure or criticism [from 16th c.]
   • 1860, William Cullen Bryant, letter, 14 Sep 1860:

     I saw Mr. Cairns yesterday. He inveighed at great length at what he called Mr. Willis's neglect of his children, saying he had just discovered that they got no whortleberries and no fish, and that he was just beginning to send them those things.

   • 1989, Jack Vance, Madouc:

     Noblemen loyal to King Milo inveighed upon him, until at last he sent off dispatches to King Audry and King Aillas, alerting them to the peculiar rash of forays, raids and provocations current along the Lyonesse border.

   • 1999, Will Hutton, The Guardian, 26 Sep 1999:

     Only last week, three aggressively written pamphlets crossed my desk inveighing against the euro.

   • 2011, Elizabeth Drew, "What were they thinking?", New York Review of Books, 18 Aug 2011:

     After the President, in a press conference in late June, inveighed against tax breaks for corporate jets, the industry quickly insisted that such a change would cost jobs.

   • 2016, Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin, The New York Times, 9 Feb 2016:

     He declared his independence from a reviled status quo by inveighing in blunt and occasionally vulgar terms about “stupid” leaders weakening America.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To draw in or away; to entice, inveigle. [17th–19th c.]
   • c. 1680, Samuel Butler, Genuine Remains:

     He is a Spirit, that inveighs away a Man from himself, undertakes great Matters for him, and after fells him for a Slave.

Derived terms

• inveigher
• inveighing

Translations