give someone hell | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)Tocastigatesomeone; todress them down.Near-synonym:raise hellHis boss reallygave him hellwhen she found out that he'd been lying about filing the reports.2011, Amrita Sharma,What Did I Ever See in Him?, page154:I gave it off to her and then I stormed right over to her husband, my colleague, andgave him hellas well .2013, Suzanne Berube Rorhus, Elizabeth Hosang, Jack Bates,Moon Shot: Murder and Mayhem on the Edge of Space:He stopped calling me Space Barbie after Mikegave him helllast week.2016, Evelyn Piper,The Nanny:When the hospital called and told him Roberta was missing, Dr. Meduccagave them hell.2019, Don Neal,Warhead:Igave him hellabout his sloppy uniform ; but don't worry, I'll get him shaped up pretty damn quick .; Totorment; To makemiserable.Coordinate terms:put through the wringer,put through the mangle,put through the mill;put someone through their paces'1915, Madox Ford,The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion, page274:Yes, she desired to see Edward suffer. And, by God, shegave him hell. Shegave himan unimaginablehell.1992, Jo Sinclair,Anna Teller, page345:She's beengiving me hellall week.2010, Manfred Gans,Life Gave Me a Chance, page273:In the thirties, my cousin, Charley Gans, my brother Gershon and I "gave him hell" when he taught that garbage in our classes .2018, Jillian Frost,Players Break Rules:These guys have beengiving me hellall morning.; Toput up a fightagainst; tobattlestronglyandeffectively.A nickname of U.S. President Harry Truman was "Give-'em-Hell Harry" because he could reallygive them hellwhen he wanted to.1917, “The Desperate Fighting of the Canadians at Lens”, inThe New York Times Current History, page45:Heine—the Canadians call their enemy Heine and not Fritz—"was at least three times as strong as us, and wegave him hell. It was hand-to-hand fighting —rifles, bombs, bayonets, butt ends —any old way of killing a man—"and we killed a lot.1956January 30, Harry S. Truman, “The Truman Memoirs: Fooling the '48 Forecasters”, inLIFE, volume40, number 5, page76:I had warned my staff and the reporters that I was going out to win the election. "I'm going to fight hard," I told Senator Barkley. "I'm going togive them hell."2014, John Stevens, Caroline Stevens,Unknown Warriors:Our gunners were temporarily knocked out by gas but soon recovered andgave them hell, which caught their first infantry rush, but they came on and advanced a mile and then their barrage slacked off a bit so as not to catch their own infantry.

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