slap down

verb

1. informal.
   tr, adverb to rebuke sharply, as for impertinence

Idioms and Phrases

Restrain or correct emphatically, as in They thought he was getting far too arrogant and needed to be slapped down . This idiom, which literally means “inflict a physical blow,” began to be used figuratively in the first half of the 1900s.

Related Words

• berate
• castigate
• censure
• flog
• lash
• punish
• upbraid