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teaching someone a lesson

teaching someone a lesson is the present participle and gerund of teach someone a lesson.

Meaning of teach someone a lesson

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)

(idiomatic, informal) To punish someone for a serious transgression they have committed so that they do not commit it again.

Synonyms:

have someone's head, fix someone's wagon, nail someone to the wall, amerce, castigate, chasten, chastise, come down on, correct, have someone's guts for garters

Questions about teaching someone a lesson

What is teaching someone a lesson the present participle and gerund of?: Teaching someone a lesson is the present participle and gerund of teach someone a lesson.

Words near teaching someone a lesson in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: teaching someone a lesson (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “teaching someone a lesson.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/teaching_someone_a_lesson. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.