Word.ws English Dictionary

kicking and screaming

kicking and screaming phrase: against someone's will; with extreme reluctance on someone's part.

Phrase

kicking and screaming

  1. Against someone's will; with extreme reluctance on someone's part.
    • to drag someone kicking and screaming
    • Well, then…you can say that I said it is a step in the right direction that will…er…be welcomed by all forward-thinking people and will drag the city kicking and screaming into the Century of the Fruitbat.2000, Terry Pratchett, The Truth

Questions about kicking and screaming

What does kicking and screaming mean?
Kicking and screaming means against someone's will; with extreme reluctance on someone's part.
What part of speech is kicking and screaming?
Kicking and screaming is a phrase.

Words near kicking and screaming in the dictionary

  1. kicking
  2. kicking a dog when it's down
  3. kicking about
  4. kicking against
  5. kicking against the pricks
  6. kicking and screaming
  7. kicking around
  8. kicking arse
  9. kicking ass
  10. kicking ass and taking names
  11. kicking at an open door

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kicking and screaming (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-kicking and screaming.ogg.

Cite this entry: “kicking and screaming.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kicking_and_screaming. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.