put the fear of God into

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Idioms and Phrases

Terrify someone, as in The school counselor put the fear of God into the girls when she talked about AIDS . This phrase alludes to a time when most people had a mingled feeling of dread and reverence toward the deity. [Late 1800s]

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

put the cart before the horse put the finger on

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