put someone through their paces

present singular third person puts someone through their paces · participle present putting someone through their paces

1. literallyequestrianismTo direct a horse to walk, canter, trot, etc.

   She put Rosebud through his paces in the ring, and received her share of applause at the antics of the clever horse.

   1916, Vance Barnum, Joe Strong on the Trapeze

2. figurativelyTo test several or all functions or training of a person, animal, machine, etc.

   When I test-drove the new car, the salesman let me take it out to the freeway to put it through its paces.

   5 more examples

   The new fire chief really put us through our paces: we had to wash all the fire trucks and then had two different fire drills.

   I have known consciences to come all the way from China and Russia to see a person of that kind put through his paces, on a special occasion.

   1876 June, Mark Twain, “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut”, in The Atlantic

   All three of the German sonder yacht challengers–Hevella, Seehund, and Margarethe, were put through their paces today for the first time since their arrival in quest of the President Taft and Gov. Draper Cups.

   1909 August 24, “German Sonder Yachts”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, page 6

   I had my first taste of a collapsing exurb last night. On our way home from the beach, a friend and I decided to put the GPS through its paces and have the thing find us a grocery store close to our route.

   2008 July 21, Megan McArdle, “Exurbs delenda est”, in The Atlantic

   A state-of-the-art ‘Mars yard’ is now ready to put the ExoMars rover through its paces before the vehicle is launched to the Red Planet in 2018.

   2014 March 27, “Mars yard ready for Red Planet rover”, in ESA, archived from the original on 23 Oct 2020