Word.ws English Dictionary

gave someone a speaking to

gave someone a speaking to is the simple past and past participle of give someone a speaking to.

Meaning of give someone a speaking to

Verb

give someone a speaking to (third-person singular simple present gives someone a speaking to, present participle giving someone a speaking to, simple past and past participle gave someone a speaking to)

  1. (idiomatic) To scold a person.
    • When she comes home I will certainly be giving her a speaking to about breaking curfew.

Questions about gave someone a speaking to

What is gave someone a speaking to the simple past and past participle of?
Gave someone a speaking to is the simple past and past participle of give someone a speaking to.

Words near gave someone a speaking to in the dictionary

  1. gave someone a hard time
  2. gave someone a lift
  3. gave someone a piece of one's mind
  4. gave someone a ring
  5. gave someone a shout
  6. gave someone a speaking to
  7. gave someone an earful
  8. gave someone ass cancer
  9. gave someone beans
  10. gave someone butt cancer
  11. gave someone five

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave someone a speaking to (page history and authors); give someone a speaking to (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “gave someone a speaking to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gave_someone_a_speaking_to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.