scold n : someone (especially a woman) who annoys people by constantly finding fault [syn: scolder, nag, nagger, common scold}] v
1. censure severely or angrily; "The mother scolded the child for entering a stranger's car"; "The deputy ragged the Prime Minister"; "The customer dressed down the waiter for bringing cold soup" [syn: call on the carpet, rebuke, rag, trounce, reproof, lecture, reprimand, jaw, dress down, call down, chide, berate, bawl out, remonstrate, chew out, chew up, have words, lambaste, lambast]
2. show one's unhappiness or critical attitude; "He scolded about anything that he thought was wrong"; "We grumbled about the increased work load" [syn: grouch, grumble]

Scold \Scold\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Scolded; p. pr. & vb. n. Scolding.] [Akin to D. schelden, G. schelten, OHG. sceltan, Dan. skielde.] To find fault or rail with rude clamor; to brawl; to utter harsh, rude, boisterous rebuke; to chide sharply or coarsely; -- often with at; as, to scold at a servant. Pardon me, lords, 't is the first time ever I was forced to scold. --Shak.

Scold \Scold\, v. t. To chide with rudeness and clamor; to rate; also, to rebuke or reprove with severity.

Scold \Scold\, n.
1. One who scolds, or makes a practice of scolding; esp., a

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In the common law of crime in England and Wales, a common scold was a species of public nuisance—a troublesome and angry woman who broke the public peace by habitually arguing and quarreling with her neighbours. The Latin name for the offender, communis rixatrix, appears in the feminine gender, and makes it clear that only women could commit this crime.

The offence, which was exported to North America with the colonists, was punishable by ducking: being placed in a chair and submerged in a river or pond. Although rarely prosecuted it remained on the statute books in England and Wales until 1967.

In the Commentaries on the Laws of England, Blackstone says of this offence:

Lastly, a common scold, communis rixatrix, (for our law-latin confines it to the feminine gender) is a public nuisance to her neighbourhood. For which offence she may be indicted; and, if convicted, shall be sentenced to be placed in a certain engine of correction called the trebucket, castigatory, or cucking stool, which in the Saxon language signifies the scolding stool; though now it is frequently corrupted into ducking stool, because the residue of the judgement is, that, when she is so placed therein, she shall be plunged in the water for her punishment.

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