Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of the nature of or pertaining to recrimination; indulging in recrimination; recriminatory.

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

  • adjective Recriminatory.

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

  • adjective recriminatory

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

  • adjective countering one charge with another

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Then he looked at her, and a feverish stream of words, half self-recriminative, half in self-defence, burst from his lips.

    Maurice Guest 2003

  • Rather, a sense of failure at home is apt to generate a peevish and recriminative attitude abroad.

    Wild Raspberries Heilbroner, Robert L. 1963

  • He is fond of conversation, chiefly of a recriminative character, and gives vent to his _joie de vivre_ by prancing and singing on two or three simple notes to the accompaniment of his clapping hands and the thud of his horny heels.

    Pan-Islam

  • Each declared that he would "rather die than be talked to death"; and then, as the two approached a point bluntly recriminative, Whitey coughed again, whereupon they were miraculously silent, and went into the passageway in a perfectly amiable manner.

    Short Stories of Various Types Various

  • Each declared that he would "rather die than be talked to death"; and then, as the two approached a point bluntly recriminative, Whitey coughed again, whereupon they were miraculously silent, and went into the passageway in

    Penrod and Sam Booth Tarkington 1907

  • When there was nothing left, he hacked the rosewood furniture and made targets of the family portraits, in the mere wantonness of loot that, as a recriminative compliment, cannot be laid to the charge of any one period or section.

    Southern Lights and Shadows William Dean Howells 1878

  • Indeed, the answers of Phillis and Mark on their examination are mutually recriminative, and amount to a plenary confession of the crime of each.

    The Trial and Execution, for Petit Treason, of Mark and Phillis, Slaves of Capt. John Codman Who Murdered Their Master at Charlestown, Mass., in 1755; for Which the Man Was Hanged and Gibbeted, and the Woman Was Burned to Death. Including, Also, Some Account of Other Punishments by Burning in Massachusetts Abner Cheney Goodell 1872

  • After a good deal of questioning on her part, and confused and recriminative statement on theirs, Marion made out the following as the facts of the case: --

    The Vicar's Daughter George MacDonald 1864

  • From this point the conversation became very contradictory in tone, then recriminative, and after that personally abusive.

    The Lonely Island The Refuge of the Mutineers 1859

  • You seem to have been aware of this yourself, considering the extreme precautions you have taken to deprive me of this resource; but as according to our French customs, any answer is an act of civility, I am not willing to concede the advantage of politeness -- besides, although silence is sometimes very significant, its eloquence is not understood by every one, and the public which has not leisure to analyze disputes (often of little interest) has a reasonable right to require at least some preliminary explanations; reserving to itself, should the discussion degenerate into the recriminative clamors of an irritated self-love, to allow the right of silence to him in whom it becomes the virtue of moderation.

    The Ruins, or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature 1788

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