Word.ws English Dictionary

given what for

given what for is the past participle of give what for.

Meaning of give what for

Verb

give what for (third-person singular simple present gives what for, present participle giving what for, simple past gave what for, past participle given what for)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To scold; to punish, especially verbally.
    • When she found out, she really gave him what for.

Questions about given what for

What is given what for the past participle of?
Given what for is the past participle of give what for.

Words near given what for in the dictionary

  1. given up the ghost
  2. given vent to
  3. given voice
  4. given way
  5. given weight
  6. given what for
  7. given with one hand and taken away with the other
  8. given-nameless
  9. giveness
  10. givenness
  11. givennesses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: given what for (page history and authors); give what for (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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