fix someone's wagon

English

Etymology

From an archaic sense of fix, "to fix in place, render unable to move", which survives in the word affix.

Verb

fix someone's wagon (third-person singular simple present fixes someone's wagon, present participle fixing someone's wagon, simple past and past participle fixed someone's wagon)

1. (idiomatic) To cause injury, distress, or inconvenience to someone, especially as punishment or as a comeuppance.
   • 1946 July 24, John Dreibinger, “Yank Errors Help Browns Win, 8 to 2”, in New York Times, page 31:

     When Randy Gumpert went in to hurl the sixth the Yankees immediately fixed his wagon. Successive errors by Steve Souchock and Stirnweiss, the latter making his first misplay of the year at third base, put two runners on and both counted.

   • 2004 February 19, Simon English, “Black 'threatened to sue every one of his directors'”, in telegraph.co.uk, retrieved 21 Oct. 2008:

     According to Mr Breeden, Lord Black said that the libel laws in the UK and Canada would permit him to sue and indicated he would go after the houses of board members. […] "He was going to fix their wagon good," said Mr Breeden.

Synonyms

• take someone down a peg, teach someone a lesson

Translations

punish

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 給...點兒顏色看／给...点儿颜色看 (gěi...diǎnr yánsè kàn)

• Finnish: antaa opetus
• Polish: zadać bobu pf