Word.ws English Dictionary

telling-to

telling-to noun: a reprimand, reproach, or lecture.

Noun

telling-to (plural tellings-to)

  1. (informal) A reprimand, reproach, or lecture.
    • We all watched the reaction, as Sergeant Rich received a good telling to.2011 December 30, James III Brokaw, Waiting for War, Hedgie Press, →ISBN, page 97
    • I suspect the Tories are desperate for a good telling to from someone like May who has authority and energy – and great optimism about the future, albeit expressed in more measured tones than her rather more hyperbolic rival.2016 July 8, Judith Woods, “'Red boxes are very much banned from the bedroom'”, in The Daily Telegraph, London, retrieved 06 Oct 2019
    Synonyms:
    telling off

Synonyms of telling-to

Forms of telling-to

pluraltellings-to
alternative formtelling to

Origin of telling-to

From telling (“past participle of tell”) + to.

Questions about telling-to

What does telling-to mean?
Telling-to means a reprimand, reproach, or lecture.
What part of speech is telling-to?
Telling-to is a noun.
What is the plural of telling-to?
The plural of telling-to is tellings-to.

Words near telling-to in the dictionary

  1. telling the truth and shaming the devil
  2. telling time
  3. telling volumes
  4. telling-off
  5. telling-offs
  6. telling-to
  7. tellingly
  8. tellingness
  9. tellings
  10. tellings off
  11. tellings-off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: telling-to (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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