tear a strip off someone
tear a strip off someone verb: to scold vigorously.
Verb
tear a strip off someone (third-person singular simple present tears a strip off someone, present participle tearing a strip off someone, simple past tore a strip off someone, past participle torn a strip off someone)
- To scold vigorously.
- Last night the honourable member for Miramar was going to tear a strip off the Minister of Works;[…].1952, New Zealand Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, volume 295, page 116
- But before Debra went out the door behind her she proceeded to tear a strip off both Miguel and Anna Maria.
Miguel ended up phoning Liz at home and tearing a strip off her for telling Debra to tell him off.2012, Kimberley Rose Dawson, Carousel: The Relapse: Spinning Out of Control, page 260
- Synonyms:
- excoriate, give someone a dressing-down, haul someone over the coals, rake over the coals, read someone the riot act, tell someone off
Synonyms of tear a strip off someone
- excoriate
- give someone a dressing-down
- haul someone over the coals
- rake over the coals
- read someone the riot act
- tell someone off
Forms of tear a strip off someone
| third-person singular present | tears a strip off someone |
|---|---|
| present participle | tearing a strip off someone |
| past | tore a strip off someone |
| past participle | torn a strip off someone |
| alternative form | tear someone off a strip |
| alternative form | tear strips off someone |
Questions about tear a strip off someone
- What does tear a strip off someone mean?
- Tear a strip off someone means to scold vigorously.
- What part of speech is tear a strip off someone?
- Tear a strip off someone is a verb.
- What is the past tense of tear a strip off someone?
- The past tense of tear a strip off someone is tore a strip off someone.
Words near tear a strip off someone in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tear a strip off someone (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-tear a strip off someone.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tear a strip off someone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tear_a_strip_off_someone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.