Meaning of give someone hell | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To castigate someone; to dress them down.
   idiomatic
2. To torment; To make miserable.
3. To put up a fight against; to battle strongly and effectively.

Examples

“Near-synonym: raise hell”

“His boss really gave him hell when she found out that he'd been lying about filing the reports.”

“I gave it off to her and then I stormed right over to her husband, my colleague, and gave him hell as well .”

“He stopped calling me Space Barbie after Mike gave him hell last week.”

“When the hospital called and told him Roberta was missing, Dr. Meducca gave them hell.”

“I gave him hell about his sloppy uniform ; but don't worry, I'll get him shaped up pretty damn quick .”

“Yes, she desired to see Edward suffer. And, by God, she gave him hell . She gave him an unimaginable hell.”

“She's been giving me hell all week.”

“In the thirties, my cousin, Charley Gans, my brother Gershon and I "gave him hell" when he taught that garbage in our classes .”

“These guys have been giving me hell all morning.”

“A nickname of U.S. President Harry Truman was "Give-'em-Hell Harry" because he could really give them hell when he wanted to.”

“Heine—the Canadians call their enemy Heine and not Fritz—"was at least three times as strong as us, and we gave him hell. It was hand-to-hand fighting —rifles, bombs, bayonets, butt ends —any old way of killing a man—"and we killed a lot.”

“I had warned my staff and the reporters that I was going out to win the election. "I'm going to fight hard," I told Senator Barkley. "I'm going to give them hell."”

“Our gunners were temporarily knocked out by gas but soon recovered and gave them hell, which caught their first infantry rush, but they came on and advanced a mile and then their barrage slacked off a bit so as not to catch their own infantry.”

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