He felt he needed to castigate the worker.The priest routinely used to castigate his secretary.

My father used to castigate me every chance he got.

To castigate someone is to berate them in a critical manner. An example of a sentence using the word "castigate" is "His mother began to castigate him when she caught him smoking. "

To castigate is to harshly tell someone off. An example of a sentence using the word castigate is: I saw her mom castigate her publicly after she knocked down all the cans off the shelf at the store.

castigate

disparage

reprimand