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Definition of "tongue-lashing" [tongue-lashing]

  • Informal A scolding. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "tongue-lashing" in a sentence
  • "The quietly reasonable senator Menenius (Brian Cox) urges restraint, but his close friend the military leader Caius Martius (Ralph Fiennes) gives the crowd a tongue-lashing, and the police, their wall of shields resembling a Roman testudo, drive the mob away."
  • "For Liverpool a night of vintage Anfield passion represented a chance to redeem themselves from Saturday's humiliation, after which they received a rare public tongue-lashing from their manager."
  • "Few judges subject lawyers to more than a tongue-lashing, lawyers for borrowers say."