call on the carpet

Thesaurus

Verb

call on the carpet - censure severely or angrily; "The mother scolded the child for entering a stranger's car"; "The deputy ragged the Prime Minister"; "The customer dressed down the waiter for bringing cold soup"chew out, chew up, chide, dress down, have words, bawl out, berate, rebuke, reproof, scold, take to task, call down, lambast, lambaste, lecture, reprimand, remonstrate, trounce, jaw, ragcastigate, chasten, chastise, objurgate, correct - censure severely; "She chastised him for his insensitive remarks"brush down, tell off - reprimand; "She told the misbehaving student off"criticise, criticize, pick apart, knock - find fault with; express criticism of; point out real or perceived flaws; "The paper criticized the new movie"; "Don't knock the food--it's free"

call on the carpet

call (one) on the carpet

To scold, rebuke, or reprimand someone. When my team lost that big client, the boss called me on the carpet.See also: call, carpet, on

call someone on the carpet

and haul someone on the carpetFig. to reprimand a person. (When done by someone of clear superiority. Haul is stronger than call.) One more error like that and the big boss will call you on the carpet. I'm sorry it went wrong. I really hope the regional manager doesn't call me on the carpet again.See also: call, carpet, on

call on the carpet

Summon for a scolding or rebuke, as in Suspecting a leak to the press, the governor called his press secretary on the carpet. This term began as on the carpet, which in the early 1700s referred to a cloth (carpet) covering a conference table and therefore came to mean "under consideration or discussion." In 19th-century America, however, carpet meant "floor covering," and the expression, first recorded in 1902, alluded to being called before or reprimanded by a person rich or powerful enough to have a carpet. See also: call, carpet, on

on the carpet, to be/call/put

To be reproved or interrogated by one’s superior. In the eighteenth century a carpet was also a table cover, and to put something on the carpet meant for it to be on the table—that is, under discussion. However, to walk on the carpet meant, in the early nineteenth century, to be reprimanded, as generally only employers or gentry used carpeted floors, and a servant who did so was being summoned for a reproof. By the late nineteenth century carpets were exclusively floor coverings, but still confined to the rooms of the rich, highborn, or employers. Presumably they sometimes summoned underlings for other purposes than reprimand, but only that meaning survived, as in G. H. Lorimer’s 1902 letter: “The boss of the canning-room [will be] called on the carpet” (Letters of a Self-Made Merchant to His Son). See also: call, on, put

call on the carpet

verb

Synonyms for call on the carpet

verb censure severely or angrily

Synonyms

chew out
chew up
chide
dress down
have words
bawl out
berate
rebuke
reproof
scold
take to task
call down
lambast
lambaste
lecture
reprimand
remonstrate
trounce
jaw
rag

Related Words

castigate
chasten
chastise
objurgate
correct
brush down
tell off
criticise
criticize
pick apart
knock