teach someone a lesson

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

teach someone a lesson (third-person singular simple present teaches someone a lesson, present participle teaching someone a lesson, simple past and past participle taught someone a lesson)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To punish someone for a serious transgression they have committed so that they do not do commit it again.

Synonyms

• fix someone's wagon

Translations

punish (informal)

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

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

• Finnish: antaa jollekin opetus
• French: donner une leçon (fr)
• German: eine Lektion erteilen
• Hungarian: megleckéztet (hu)
• Italian: dare una lezione (it)
• Japanese: 目に物見せる (めにものみせる, me ni monomiseru), 思い知らせる (おもいしらせる, omoishiraseru)
• Korean: 혼내다 (ko) (honnaeda)
• Romanian: învăța minte
• Russian: проучи́ть (ru) pf (proučítʹ), показа́ть, где ра́ки зиму́ют pf (pokazátʹ, gde ráki zimújut), показа́ть ку́зькину мать pf (pokazátʹ kúzʹkinu matʹ)
• Spanish: dar una lección
• Swedish: lära en läxa, läxa upp (sv)
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

See also

• show someone who's boss