Word.ws English Dictionary

hauling someone over the coals

hauling someone over the coals is the present participle and gerund of haul someone over the coals.

Meaning of haul someone over the coals

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)

  1. (UK, idiomatic) 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.

Questions about hauling someone over the coals

What is hauling someone over the coals the present participle and gerund of?
Hauling someone over the coals is the present participle and gerund of haul someone over the coals.

Words near hauling someone over the coals in the dictionary

  1. hauling down
  2. hauling in
  3. hauling off
  4. hauling one's ashes
  5. hauling out
  6. hauling someone over the coals
  7. hauling tail
  8. hauling up
  9. haulings
  10. haulm
  11. haulms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hauling someone over the coals (page history and authors); 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.

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