dressing-down

plural dressing-downs · plural dressings-down · alternative dressing down

1. idiomaticA reprimand or rarely, a thrashing.

   "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

   3 more examples

   "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

   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

   Synonyms: handbagging, stricture, hiding, going over, animadversion, criticism, criticization, critique