haul someone over the coals
haul someone over the coals verb: to express anger with someone in no uncertain terms when they do something wrong.
Verb
haul someone over the coals (third-person singular simple present hauls someone over the coals, present participle hauling someone over the coals, simple past and past participle hauled someone over the coals)
- To express anger with someone in no uncertain terms when they do something wrong.
- The teacher hauled him over the coals for not doing his homework.
- Synonyms:
- berate, give someone a dressing down, give someone a telling off, pull someone over the coals, rake over the coals, read someone the riot act, scold, tear a strip off someone, tear someone a new asshole, tear someone a new one
Synonyms of haul someone over the coals
- berate
- give someone a dressing down
- give someone a telling off
- pull someone over the coals
- rake over the coals
- read someone the riot act
- scold
- tear a strip off someone
- tear someone a new asshole
- tear someone a new one
2 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- tell off
- tell someone off
Forms of haul someone over the coals
| third-person singular present | hauls someone over the coals |
|---|---|
| present participle | hauling someone over the coals |
| past participle | hauled someone over the coals |
| past | hauled someone over the coals |
Origin of haul someone over the coals
In reference to a punishment once meted out to heretics.
Questions about haul someone over the coals
- What does haul someone over the coals mean?
- Haul someone over the coals means to express anger with someone in no uncertain terms when they do something wrong.
- What part of speech is haul someone over the coals?
- Haul someone over the coals is a verb.
- What is the past tense of haul someone over the coals?
- The past tense of haul someone over the coals is hauled someone over the coals.
Words near haul someone over the coals in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: haul someone over the coals (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-haul someone over the coals.ogg.
Cite this entry: “haul someone over the coals.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/haul_someone_over_the_coals. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.