teach someone a lesson
teach someone a lesson verb: to punish someone for a serious transgression they have committed so that they do not commit it again.
Verb
teach someone a lesson (third-person singular simple present teaches someone a lesson, present participle teaching someone a lesson, simple past and past participle taught someone a lesson)
- To punish someone for a serious transgression they have committed so that they do not commit it again.
Synonyms of teach someone a lesson
- have someone's head
- fix someone's wagon
- nail someone to the wall
- amerce
- castigate
- chastise
- come down on
- correct
- have someone's guts for garters
- have someone's hide
11 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of teach someone a lesson
| third-person singular present | teaches someone a lesson |
|---|---|
| present participle | teaching someone a lesson |
| past participle | taught someone a lesson |
| past | taught someone a lesson |
Questions about teach someone a lesson
- What does teach someone a lesson mean?
- Teach someone a lesson means to punish someone for a serious transgression they have committed so that they do not commit it again.
- What part of speech is teach someone a lesson?
- Teach someone a lesson is a verb.
- What is the past tense of teach someone a lesson?
- The past tense of teach someone a lesson is taught someone a lesson.
Words near teach someone a lesson in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: teach someone a lesson (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-teach someone a lesson.ogg.
Cite this entry: “teach someone a lesson.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/teach_someone_a_lesson. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.