expostulate

Related to expostulate: malefactions

expostulate about (someone or something)

To engage in a passionate discussion or argument about someone or something. Oh boy, steer clear of Uncle Ed if he's expostulating about politics again.
See also: expostulate

expostulate on (someone or something)

To engage in a passionate discussion or argument about someone or something. Oh boy, steer clear of Uncle Ed if he's expostulating on politics again.
See also: expostulate, on
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

expostulate about someone or something

 and expostulate on someone or something
to comment or argue intensely about someone or something. He always seems to be expostulating on something. Why can't he simply say "Yes" or "No"? Sam is expostulating on Bill's many shortcomings again.
See also: expostulate
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • expostulate about
  • expostulate about (someone or something)
  • expostulate on (someone or something)
  • steer clear of
  • steer clear of (someone or something)
  • steer clear of someone/something
  • steer clear
  • fire someone up
  • fire something up
  • fire up
References in periodicals archive
Although the King returns in 3.1 to expostulate with "prayer book" in hand, his words have little of the theatrical drive on display in 2.5: No bending knee will call thee Caesar now No humble suitors press to speak for right, No, not a man comes for redress of thee.
Table 2 Representative Errors of Patient's Oral Reading Responses to Printed Stimuli Printed Words Oral Responses alertly "alert" alkali "alike" instigator "intimator" unsociable "insatiable" expostulate "expotulate" plagiarism "plagaris" Printed Nonsense Words Oral Responses ab "ad" tash "task" wips "wiks" plen "pled" hets "hast" plon "plas" expram "expam" stabe "stade" telequik "tetequik" subscrate "lubcrate"
Senator from New York, asked Shanker to take a walk with him, ostensibly to expostulate with him about a face-saving settlement on the grounds that the union had little minority support.
CRICKETERS are said to be more intelligent than footballers and it's hard to expostulate.
I'm certain that most of us know the answer to this question, but daren't expostulate for fear of scuppering the Final Round of Talks.
It would have appealed to a sophisticated collector who could expostulate on ancient ancestry, recondite philosophies and high moral dilemmas.
In the West, far too many commentators expostulate about Islam who have no knowledge of Arabic.
Walker's lengthiest reflection on the regulation of the emotions is on pages 71-2, where Lord Munster pauses in his narrative to expostulate on the dangers for women of succumbing to excessive sensibility:
At that point the correspondence breaks from the routine of daily writing, and the narrator begins to expostulate almost compulsively on the work (and worth) of a writer in terms of mathematical calculation.
Today's scientists expostulate the possibility of creating a six storey subterranean complex beneath the House of Commons to provide swimming pools, gardens, hotels and sports facilities, as if MPs don't already have enough, as well as getting a 10% pay rise, while the rest of us continue to struggle to survive the politics of chaos.
IeIUm certain that most of us know the answer to this question, but dareneIUt expostulate for fear of scuppering the Final Round of Talks.
So given the fact that I won't be sent a union soapbox upon which to expostulate, I'll do so here and now.
It's as if she had distantly overheard a conversation about Rimbaud, mistook it for an exchange about "Rambo" and then proceeded to expostulate at great length about Sylvester Stallone's performance.
The narrator is finally driven to expostulate: "When you people don't love girls, why do you pretend to worship them?" (63).