dressing-down
noun1
Idiomatic A reprimand or rarely, a thrashing.
- "I'll give him a dressing down, see if I don't." Mrs. Mudge's eyes snapped viciously, and she clutched the relics of the broom with a degree of energy which rendered it uncertain what sort of a dressing down she intended for her husband.1865, Horatio Alger, Jr., Paul Prescott's Charge:
- When the blacksmith saw what Babo had done to his mother, he caught him by the collar, and fell to giving him such a dressing down as never man had before.1894, Howard Pyle, Twilight Land:
2 more examples
- "We must all bow to you, and try to get a favorable word, must we? This man shall have a leg up, and this man shall have a dressing down!"1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
- Just ask Gen. Yevgeny I. Ignatov, a former mayor of Torzhok, who stepped down two years ago after a dressing-down from the regional governor.2013 October 13, Ellen Barry, “The Russia Left Behind: A journey through a heartland on the slow road to ruin”, in The New York Times:
- Related terms
- dress down