tell off
verb
Forms tells off telling off told off
- verb (transitive, military) To number off (a group of soldiers); to divide up (soldiers) in this way.
- verb (transitive) To assign (someone) to a particular task, duty etc.; to depute, to allocate.
- verb (transitive) To count off (numbers, members of a sequence etc.); to enumerate.
- verb (transitive) To rebuke, to reprimand, or to admonish, often in a harsh, angry, direct way. “Joel's boss told him off for being late again.”
Synonyms
enumerate give somebody a piece of one's mind give somebody what-for read somebody the riot act scold number brush down
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “tell off”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details