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tell off
verb
- informal.to reprimand; scold
they told me off for stealing apples
- to count and dismiss
he told off four more soldiers
Derived Forms
- telling off, noun
Idioms and Phrases
Rebuke severely, reprimand, as in It's time someone told her off about her behavior . There is also a synonymous expression, tell someone where to get off , as in When he called back a third time, I told him where to get off . [ Colloquial ; early 1900s] Also see get off , def. 7.Example Sentences
“I quite like broad humor and s— humor, and I keep getting told off for it,†he says, erupting into a devilish laugh.
Pupil Lilly-Belle, 12, was told off in her first week at the school because she was wearing her sister's old skirts which were not the right length.
Adrien was just sitting there, like a teenager being told off in a principal’s office.
"I would just daydream, do nothing, and I'd probably get told off a bunch."
She was once told off for asking to learn Mandarin.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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