nail someone to the wall
nail someone to the wall verb: to punish or discipline extremely harshly.
Verb
nail someone to the wall (third-person singular simple present nails someone to the wall, present participle nailing someone to the wall, simple past and past participle nailed someone to the wall)
- to punish or discipline extremely harshly.
- They would find him with the file he never sent in, nail him to the wall. There would be no time for explanations. His unmarked body would be found floating down the Charles2000, Alvin L. Ureles, The Mizar Project, page 209
Synonyms of nail someone to the wall
- have someone's head
- give someone what for
- teach someone a lesson
- amerce
- castigate
- chastise
- come down on
- correct
- fix someone's wagon
- have someone's guts for garters
11 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of nail someone to the wall
| third-person singular present | nails someone to the wall |
|---|---|
| present participle | nailing someone to the wall |
| past participle | nailed someone to the wall |
| past | nailed someone to the wall |
Questions about nail someone to the wall
- What does nail someone to the wall mean?
- Nail someone to the wall means to punish or discipline extremely harshly.
- What part of speech is nail someone to the wall?
- Nail someone to the wall is a verb.
- What is the past tense of nail someone to the wall?
- The past tense of nail someone to the wall is nailed someone to the wall.
Words near nail someone to the wall in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nail someone to the wall (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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