to take to task
20
6.3
- phrasal verb
- The manager took the employee to task for his repeated lateness at work.
- taken to task for failing
Loading YouTube…
Watch on YouTubeSo Ian Lee took her to task for it and called her a bigot.
- So Ian Lee took her to task for it and called her a bigot.
- But again, I'm sure there are many people who would take me to task for this.
- Now later on, they'll have a correspondence and she'll actually take him to task for how he presents female characters.
- It was sort of, you know, relying on the comedian's to come and and take the president to task.
Examples
-
I'll take him to task personally.
-
To me, it is Crick who must be taken to task for this representation and not Swift.
Academic text (2017) -
You know, she, she will, she will take you to task if you, you know, treat her wrong.
-
In high school, a teacher had taken the class to task for those very words.
Fiction book (2000) -
Later on, after the project was over, I decided to take her to task about her attitude.
Fiction book (2001) -
We have all the right, as Democrats, to take Obama to task on this.
Blog text (4) -
Buck looked bad at the debate and got taken to task on so many of his scandals.
Blog text (1) -
Time and again, Romney could have taken Obama to task point-blank but failed to do so.
Blog text (1) -
Twitter lit up with Romney aides taking the president to task for his word choice.
Blog text (9) -
Max Eastman, in particular, took Tresca to task for his "un-American" behavior.
Academic text (1997)
Synonyms
147
5.8
Tell someone publicly that they did something wrong
116
4.6
To give someone a long serious talk that warns or scolds them about what they did
58
8.1
To angrily tell someone off
54
2.2
Speak angrily to someone who has done something wrong
54
5.9
To criticize someone strongly
51
4.3
To blame someone for a mistake or problem
36
7.2
Scold someone angrily and severely
35
8.1
To scold someone very strongly for something they did
33
6.1
To tell someone they did something wrong, usually by a person in charge
32
7.6
To scold someone strongly for doing something wrong
25
6.9
To tell someone firmly that you do not approve of their actions
25
7.0
Scold someone angrily in front of others
21
7.0
Tell someone you are unhappy with what they did
11
8.2
To criticize someone very strongly and angrily
10
7.1
To scold someone angrily and severely
8
6.7
Shout loudly at someone because they did something wrong
6
7.9
Scold someone very strongly for a mistake
5
8.7
Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
4
7.9
To tell someone strongly that they have done something wrong, often in front of others
3
8.3
Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
3
8.0
To criticize someone or something very strongly in public
3
8.8
To scold someone strongly for something they did wrong
3
6.3
To angrily tell someone they did something wrong
1
6.8
Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
1
8.6
To scold someone very strongly for a mistake
1
8.1
To tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
1
8.4
Scold a person in front of others for a mistake
Antonyms
How Harsh
36
7.2
20
6.3
- Formal
33
6.1
54
2.2
653
3.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to criticize or reprimand' is not directly derivable from the literal senses of 'take' (assume) and 'task' (a piece of work). This is an idiomatic usage where the connection between the parts and the overall meaning is language-specific and unlikely to be predicted by a B1 learner who only knows the constituents.
Etymology
Take to task may come from the image of someone being brought before a leader and given a hard task as punishment. So if you are taken to task, you are blamed or sharply told off, 'to criticize'.