Severe punishment for breaking of certain rules or laws; highest level of penalty

Etymology:

  • The phrase includes the word book that means the book of the law including all the penalties that can be imposed on someone. Now imagine that book is thrown by the judge to someone guilt of something and hitting him or her in the worse possible manner. This was basically the image of the writer who introduced this idiom.
83 Views

Samantha was fired from her job because of her irresponsible act but I think that really was throwing the book at her.

Submitted on February 25, 2019

Translation

Find a translation for the Throw the Book at Someone phrase in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to Throw the Book at Someone

How to pronounce this phrase?

Discuss this Throw the Book at Someone phrase with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this Throw the Book at Someone definition to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Throw the Book at Someone." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 Oct. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/throw-the-book-at-someone_45085>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest human-edited phrases collection on the web!

    Quiz

    Are you a phrases master?

    »
    We have no leads… I suppose it's back to ________ one for us.
    A spot
    B square
    C target
    D circle