lay into

verb lays into · laying into · laid into

1. colloquial To beat up or launch an attack against; to strike forcefully. A very spirited affair it looked with its red body and yellow wheels, bouncing about on its high C springs [...] with its four horses going full stretch and two postilions in knee-cords and top-boots laying into the horses in a lather of dust and excitement.
2. colloquial, figuratively To berate; to scold. Indeed, after laying into Volodymyr Zelensky, the embattled president of an embattled Ukraine, in the Oval Office last year, Mr. Trump noted with satisfaction that “this is going to be great television.”
3. colloquial To start eating voraciously. I'm gonna lay into that ice cream later tonight.