Expostulate

Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 11, 2012

expostulate \ik-SPOS-chuh-leyt\, verb:

To reason earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has done.

The tears would run plentifully down my face when I made these reflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself, why Providence should thus completely ruin his creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable, so without help abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
-- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

Peter at last determined one day, all of a sudden, that he would step into this highland reaver's den, and expostulate with him on the baseness and impolicy of his conduct, and try to convince him of these, and persuade him to keep his own laird's bounds.
-- James Hogg, Tales of the Wars of Montrose

Expostulate is derived from the Latin word expostulātus which meant "demanded urgently or required."

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/