a. [f. L. censōri-us pertaining to a censor (f. censor; see CENSOR) + -OUS: cf. OF. censorieux.]
1. Addicted to censure; severely critical; fault-finding. Const. of; † on, upon (obs.).
1536. St. Trials, Anne Boleyn (Harl. MS.) (R.). I intreate him to judge favourably … and not rashly to admit any censorious conceit.
1605. Camden, Rem., 5. Which you must not reade with a censorious eye.
1646. Fuller, Wounded Consc. (1841), 288. Those who are most indulgent to their own, are most censorious of others’ sins.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 199. ’Tis possible that the Nonconformists … may be too censorious of others.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 53, ¶ 5. At a Loss to acquit themselves to a Censorious World.
a. 1720. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), I. 133. Such is the mode of these censorious days, The art is lost of knowing how to praise.
1766. Anstey, Bath Guide, xii. 6. Bath is a very censorious Place.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 161. He is not censorious and does not censure him.
† 2. Befitting a censor; grave, severe. Obs.
1636. B. Jonson, Discov., ix. (1692), 183. His [Bacon’s] language (where he could spare or pass by a jest) was nobly censorious.
a. 1660. Hammond, Wks., IV. 614 (R.). To take upon them … a solemn censorious majestick garb.
