expostulator


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ex·pos·tu·late

(ĭk-spŏs′chə-lāt′)
v. ex·pos·tu·lat·ed, ex·pos·tu·lat·ing, ex·pos·tu·lates
v.intr.
To reason earnestly with someone in an effort to dissuade or correct; remonstrate. See Synonyms at object.
v.tr.
To say in protest; object: "[He] expostulated that they had every right to hold a street meeting" (Pierre Berton).

[Latin expostulāre, expostulāt- : ex-, intensive pref.; see ex- + postulāre, to demand; see prek- in Indo-European roots.]

ex·pos′tu·la′tion n.
ex·pos′tu·la′tor n.
ex·pos′tu·la·to′ry (-lə-tôr′ē), ex·pos′tu·la′tive adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
In Hodgart's twentieth-century continuation, A New Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is a plot device rather than either the expostulator or the butt of the satire.
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