give someone hell
To castigate someone; to dress them downTo castigate someone; to dress them down.
» Tom lost, but he gave the other guy hell.
Tom verlor zwar, lieferte dem anderen aber ein scharfes Gefecht. — Pfirsichbaeumchen · CC BY 2.0 FR
shekitten · Tatoeba · CC0Meaning
3 senses(idiomatic)To castigate someone; to dress them down.
Near-synonym: raise hell
His boss really gave him hell when she found out that he'd been lying about filing the reports.
To torment; To make miserable.
To put up a fight against; to battle strongly and effectively.
A nickname of U.S. President Harry Truman was "Give-'em-Hell Harry" because he could really give them hell when he wanted to.
Examples
5 sentencesTom lost, but he gave the other guy hell.
deTom verlor zwar, lieferte dem anderen aber ein scharfes Gefecht. — Pfirsichbaeumchen · CC BY 2.0 FR
She gave him hell.
ruОна устроила ему ад. — andy
She gave me hell.
ruОна задала мне жару. — Wezel
deSie hat mich fertiggemacht. — Pfirsichbaeumchen
Give them hell!
ruЗадай им жару! — Wezel
If you take a single piece of the cake, I'll give you hell.
deWenn du auch nur ein Stück von dem Kuchen nimmst, mach ich dir die Hölle heiß. — Zaghawa
Forms
gives someone hell, giving someone hell, gave someone hell, given someone hell| Base form | give someone hell · to give someone hell |
|---|---|
| 3rd person singular | gives someone hell |
| Present participle | giving someone hell |
| Past simple | gave someone hell |
| Past participle | given someone hell |
irregular · Lesson
Synonyms
1 synonymsWord family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, irregular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle