give someone hell

English

Verb

give someone hell (third-person singular simple present gives someone hell, present participle giving someone hell, simple past gave someone hell, past participle given someone hell)

1. (idiomatic) To castigate; to dress down.
   • 2011, Amrita Sharma, What Did I Ever See in Him?, page 154:

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

   • 2013, Suzanne Berube Rorhus, ‎Elizabeth Hosang, ‎Jack Bates, Moon Shot: Murder and Mayhem on the Edge of Space:

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

   • 2016, Evelyn Piper, The Nanny:

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

   • 2019, Don Neal, Warhead:

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

2. To torment; To make miserable.
   • '1915, Madox Ford, The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion, page 274:

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

   • 1992, Jo Sinclair, Anna Teller, page 345:

     She's been giving me hell all week.

   • 2010, Manfred Gans, Life Gave Me a Chance, page 273:

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

   • 2018, Jillian Frost, Players Break Rules:

     These guys have been giving me hell all morning.

3. To put up a fight against; to battle strongly and effectively.
   • 1917, “The Desperate Fighting of the Canadians at Lens”, in The New York Times Current History, page 45:

     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.

   • 1956 January 30, Harry S. Truman, “The Truman Memoirs: Fooling the '48 Forecasters”, in LIFE, volume 40, number 5, page 76:

     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."

   • 2014, John Stevens, ‎Caroline Stevens, Unknown Warriors:

     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.