Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A bitter, abusive denunciation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A continued discourse or disputation.
  • noun Specifically
  • noun A bitter and violent criticism; a strain of invective.
  • noun Same as diatribe

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A prolonged or exhaustive discussion; especially, an acrimonious or invective harangue; a strain of abusive or railing language; a philippic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An abusive, bitter denunciation.
  • noun A prolonged discourse.
  • noun A speech or writing which bitterly denounces something.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun thunderous verbal attack

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin diatriba, learned discourse, from Greek diatribē, pastime, lecture, from diatrībein, to consume, wear away : dia-, intensive pref.; see dia– + trībein, to rub; see terə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested 1581, from Latin diatriba ("learned discussion or discourse"), from Ancient Greek διατριβή (diatribē, "way of spending time, lecture"), from διά (dia, "through") + τρίβω (tribō, "I waste, wear out")

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