expostulation

From Latin expostulātiōnem, accusative singular of expostulātiō (“complaint, expostulation”), from expostulō (“demand, expostulate”), from ex (“out of, from”) + postulō (“demand or claim”). See expostulate.

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

expostulation (countable and uncountable, plural expostulations)

1. The act of reasoning earnestly in order to dissuade or remonstrate.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 4:

     At length, by dint of much wriggling, and loud and incessant expostulations upon the unbecomingness of his hugging a fellow male in that matrimonial sort of style, I succeeded in extracting a grunt ...

• demur
• exception
• objection
• protest, protestation
• remonstrance, remonstration
• squawk, kick