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Rebuke vs Comeuppance - What's the difference?

rebuke | comeuppance |

As nouns the difference between rebuke and comeuppance

is that rebuke is a harsh criticism while comeuppance is a negative outcome which is justly deserved.

As a verb rebuke

is to criticise harshly; to reprove.

rebuke

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A harsh criticism.
  • * 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
  • There was the sternness of an old-fashioned Tour patron in his rebuke to the young Frenchman Pierre Rolland, the only one to ride away from the peloton and seize the opportunity for a lone attack before being absorbed back into the bunch, where he was received with coolness.

    Verb

    (rebuk)
  • To criticise harshly; to reprove.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    comeuppance

    English

    Alternative forms

    * comeupance

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A negative outcome which is justly deserved.
  • * 1883 , Albion Winegar Tourgée, ed., The Continent; an illustrated weekly magazine , v 3.
  • So when Brown's second wife turned out a reg'lar ternygrunt, I wa'n't in no wise upset, for he needed a comeuppance , an' he got it in her.
  • * 1918 , , ch 10.
  • The Sunday edition of the principal morning paper even expressed some bitterness under the heading, "Gilded Youths of the Fin-de-Siecle"--this was considered the knowing phrase of the time, especially for Sunday supplements--and there is no doubt that from certain references in this bit of writing some people drew the conclusion that Mr. George Amberson Minafer had not yet got his comeuppance , a postponement still irritating.
  • * 1958', “Yankee '''Comeuppance in a Lousy Inning”, in '' , v 45, n 15 (October 13), p 34.
  • The Yankees got their comeuppance in Milwaukee when the Braves piled up a record score for the first inning of a World Series game.
  • * 2004 , Peter Hunt, Sheila G. Bannister Ray, eds., International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature , p 862.
  • in the anonymous A New Gift for Children (1750), perhaps America's first secular storybook, and its tales of children who are good and merit rewards, and tales of children who are otherwise and receive their comeuppances .
  • * '>citation
  • Usage notes

    A comeuppance is invariably a bad experience. Even so, some dictionaries leave open the possibility of a positive outcome, either explicitly in the definition or by using synonyms such as (just deserts), which can be positive.

    Synonyms

    * (outcome that is justly deserved) just deserts