Word.ws English Dictionary

putting someone in their place

putting someone in their place is the present participle and gerund of put someone in their place.

Meaning of put someone in their place

Verb

put someone in their place (third-person singular simple present puts someone in their place, present participle putting someone in their place, simple past and past participle put someone in their place)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To remind someone of their position.
  2. (idiomatic) To bring somebody down; to humble or rebuke.
    • His quips at the party aimed to put the CEO in his place.

Questions about putting someone in their place

What is putting someone in their place the present participle and gerund of?
Putting someone in their place is the present participle and gerund of put someone in their place.

Words near putting someone in their place in the dictionary

  1. putting someone hip
  2. putting someone in a box
  3. putting someone in a false position
  4. putting someone in hospital
  5. putting someone in mind of
  6. putting someone in their place
  7. putting someone on blast
  8. putting someone on game
  9. putting someone on ice
  10. putting someone on to
  11. putting someone out of their misery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting someone in their place (page history and authors); put someone in their place (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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Cite this entry: “putting someone in their place.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/putting_someone_in_their_place. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.