nail someone to the wall

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nail someone to the wall

verb nails someone to the wall · nailing someone to the wall · nailed someone to the wall

  1. to punish or discipline extremely harshly. They would find him with the file he never sent in, nail him to the wall. There would be no time for explanations. His unmarked body would be found floating down the Charles

    Similar: have someone's head, give someone what for, teach someone a lesson, amerce, castigate, chasten, chastise, come down on, correct, fix someone's wagon, have someone's guts for garters, have someone's hide

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MLA

"nail someone to the wall." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/nail%20someone%20to%20the%20wall. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

nail someone to the wall. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/nail%20someone%20to%20the%20wall

Chicago

"nail someone to the wall." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/nail%20someone%20to%20the%20wall.

BibTeX
@misc{nail_someone_to_the_wall_2026,
  title = {nail someone to the wall},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/nail%20someone%20to%20the%20wall},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}