Dictionary

expostulatory en · ADJ

Etymology

From expostulate + -ory.

Meanings

1. Of, characterized by, or exhibiting expostulation.
   • Carrados divined an exchange of private glances, expostulatory from the husband, playfully defiant on her part. 1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries:
   • It is unquestionably a "Tendenzschrift," apologetic and expostulatory in tone, designed to defend and expound the writings and traditions of the Rabbis, whose "instructive parables and tales . . . are so many miniature paintings of the habits, manners, and modes of thinking, of an ancient people at a remote period of antiquity" ("Essay," London ed., 1826, p. 81). 1917, George Alexander Kohut, preface to Hebrew tales; selected and translated from the writings of the ancient Hebrew sages, p. 13

Forms