Word.ws English Dictionary

gives someone a speaking to

gives someone a speaking to is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 gives someone a speaking to

What is gives someone a speaking to the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Gives someone a speaking to is the third-person singular simple present indicative of give someone a speaking to.

Words near gives someone a speaking to in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gives 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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