curtain lecture

plural curtain lectures

1. A scolding given by a wife to her husband in bed.

   Yes, she may toss her head and hector, / But she shall have a curtain lecture ...

   1829, William Combe, The Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of a Wife, Canto 1

   5 more examples

   I have pawn'd already her Tuftaffaty Peticote and all her Child-bed linnen, besides two tiffiny Aprons, and her bearing-cloth, for which I have had already two curtaine Lectures, and a black and blue eye.

   1649, Francis Quarles, Virgin Widow, act II, scene 1

   I still prevailed, and would be in the right, / Or curtain lectures made a restless night.

   1714, Alexander Pope, The Wife of Bath

   A curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering.

   1819, Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle

   ... in a curtain lecture, I say, Mrs. Sedley took her husband to task for his cruel conduct to poor Joe.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 4, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   Before she went, she gave Robert several curtain lectures; but he had little time for her and avoided her.

   1973, Christina Stead, The Little Hotel, Text Classics, published 2016, page 201