where to get off
1
9.9
- idiom
- Offensive
:
mandar a alguien a la mierda
- When my friend started lecturing me on my personal life, I had to tell her where to get off.
Examples
-
I finally told my coworker where to get off after he criticized my project for the third time.
-
And when one of them chooses not to show us the same respect, we can only be expected to coddle him for so long before telling him where to get off.
Blog text (10) -
After that rude comment, I felt it was time to show him where to get off and set some boundaries.
Synonyms
213
1.6
To leave a vehicle, for example a bus, or stop annoying someone
104
9.9
Leave or tell someone to leave in a rude way
12
9.9
Tell someone to go away immediately in a rude way
12
7.7
Leave a place quickly, often in a rude way
4
8.9
Tell someone to go away and leave you alone
3
9.9
Tell someone to go away in a rude way
Rudely say to someone that you want them to go away
A rude way to tell someone to go away without the real swear word
Tell someone to go away in a rude way
How Forceful
- UK
- Offensive
1
9.9
379
1.4
- Informal
13
4.2
- Informal
321
8.1
- Informal
35
5.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although the constituents literally suggest a place to disembark ('where' + 'get off'), the idiomatic use in 'tell someone where to get off' means to rebuke someone or tell them to go away/mind their own business. This social, idiomatic sense is not predictable from the literal meanings of the parts and would not be reliably guessed by a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Where to get off probably comes from the picture of someone on a bus or train and another person pointing to a place and saying get off so they leave. So, to 'tell someone where to get off' today means to angrily tell them to leave you alone or to stop criticizing you.