Dressing-down

He gave her a dressing-down.

He gave him a dressing-down.

Once again, his manager gave him a dressing-down in front of the whole team.

The boss gave his staff a dressing-down.

"I'll give him a dressing down, see if I don't." Mrs. Mudge's eyes snapped viciously, and she clutched the relics of the broom with a degree of energy which rendered it uncertain what sort of a dressing down she intended for her husband.

When the blacksmith saw what Babo had done to his mother, he caught him by the collar, and fell to giving him such a dressing down as never man had before.

"We must all bow to you, and try to get a favorable word, must we? This man shall have a leg up, and this man shall have a dressing down!"

Just ask Gen. Yevgeny I. Ignatov, a former mayor of Torzhok, who stepped down two years ago after a dressing-down from the regional governor.