dressing-down

See also: dressing down

English

Alternative forms

• dressing down

Pronunciation

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Noun

dressing-down (plural dressing-downs or dressings-down)

1. (idiomatic) A reprimand or rarely, a thrashing.
   • 1865, Horatio Alger, Jr., Paul Prescott's Charge:

     "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.

   • 1894, Howard Pyle, Twilight Land:

     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.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "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!"

   • 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^[1]:

     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.

Related terms

• dress down

Translations

reprimand — see reprimand