Reprobate By Deane Barker • May 6, 2022 • Definition: a morally unprincipled person “Reprove” means to scold or express disapproval of someone. A “reprobate” is technically someone on the receiving end of that disapproval. Why I Looked It Up On the back of a romance novel: When Elizabeth laid eyes on drunk, disorderly Sam, the disdain was more than mutual. The crude, uncivilized reprobate was her escort? Why, she’d be safer in a bed of rattlesnakes!