Word.ws English Dictionary

on the receiving end

on the receiving end prepositional phrase: being the victim of an unpleasant action.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Being the victim of an unpleasant action.
    • I have always been on the receiving end of his unpredictable temper.
    • And their job was done after a sensational opening burst brought four goals in the first 25 minutes as Chelsea were left bedraggled, humiliated and on the receiving end of their worst defeat since they lost 7-0 at Nottingham Forest in April 1991.2019 February 10, Phil McNulty, “Manchester City 6-0 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport

Forms of on the receiving end

alternative format the receiving end

Questions about on the receiving end

What does on the receiving end mean?
On the receiving end means being the victim of an unpleasant action.
What part of speech is on the receiving end?
On the receiving end is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the receiving end in the dictionary

  1. on the razz
  2. on the razzle
  3. on the razzle-dazzle
  4. on the ready
  5. on the real
  6. on the receiving end
  7. on the record
  8. on the reg
  9. on the reggo
  10. on the regs
  11. on the regular

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the receiving end (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-on the receiving end.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the receiving end.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_receiving_end. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.