Word.ws English Dictionary

rake over the coals

rake over the coals verb: to call to task or to reprimand severely.

Verb

rake over the coals (third-person singular simple present rakes over the coals, present participle raking over the coals, simple past and past participle raked over the coals)

  1. (idiomatic) To call to task or to reprimand severely.
    • She raked him over the coals for lying to her.

rake over the coals meaning in Bengali

rake over the coals in Bengali

কঠোরভাবে তিরস্কার করা, জবাবদিহি চাওয়া

Synonyms of rake over the coals

Forms of rake over the coals

third-person singular presentrakes over the coals
present participleraking over the coals
past participleraked over the coals
pastraked over the coals

Origin of rake over the coals

The earliest example given is from 1565: "S. Augustine, that knewe best how to fetche an heretike ouer the coles." (OED). From the practice of dragging or raking heretics over coals performed by the Catholic Church as a form of torture.

Questions about rake over the coals

What does rake over the coals mean?
Rake over the coals means to call to task or to reprimand severely.
What is rake over the coals in Bengali?
Rake over the coals in Bengali is কঠোরভাবে তিরস্কার করা, জবাবদিহি চাওয়া. See Rake over the coals meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is rake over the coals?
Rake over the coals is a verb.
What is the past tense of rake over the coals?
The past tense of rake over the coals is raked over the coals.

Words near rake over the coals in the dictionary

  1. rake it in
  2. rake off
  3. rake out
  4. rake over
  5. rake over old coals
  6. rake over the coals
  7. rake receiver
  8. rake receivers
  9. rake stepping
  10. rake steppings
  11. rake together

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rake over the coals (page history and authors); rake over the coals (Bengali Wiktionary) (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-rake over the coals.ogg.

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