Word.ws English Dictionary

giving someone the gears

giving someone the gears is the present participle and gerund of give someone the gears.

Meaning of give someone the gears

Verb

give someone the gears (third-person singular simple present gives someone the gears, present participle giving someone the gears, simple past gave someone the gears, past participle given someone the gears)

  1. (Canada, slang) To scold or criticize someone.
    • Then Mr. Melnyk pointed out that we probably wouldn't have electricity. Someone else said she'd take a blanket so she could sleep and stay warm. Then a guy asked if he could share it. Mr. Melnyk gave him the gears […]2014, Dianne Linden, Peacekeepers

Questions about giving someone the gears

What is giving someone the gears the present participle and gerund of?
Giving someone the gears is the present participle and gerund of give someone the gears.

Words near giving someone the gears in the dictionary

  1. giving someone the business
  2. giving someone the chair
  3. giving someone the cold shoulder
  4. giving someone the creeps
  5. giving someone the eye
  6. giving someone the gears
  7. giving someone the heave-ho
  8. giving someone the old heave-ho
  9. giving someone the runaround
  10. giving someone the shits
  11. giving someone the slip

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: giving someone the gears (page history and authors); give someone the gears (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: “giving someone the gears.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/giving_someone_the_gears. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.