to call on the carpet
3
7.9
- idiom
- Archaic
:
reprender
- Any teacher or student who was sidetracked, thinking he knew better ways of running a school than I did, was immediately called on the carpet and put in his place.
Examples
-
It took about a year for me to be called on the carpet by my supervisor.
Blog text (7) -
Perhaps our state governments will change laws so that we can implement your discipline practices at KIPP and not get called on the carpet for high suspension rates.
Blog text (25) -
Called on the carpet for it, he says to his boss: "Was that wrong?"
Blog text (32) -
Mr. Byron asked town officials to "call Cablevision on the carpet" for its slow storm response.
Blog text (28) -
The worst part of most of the irritation people feel right now is that a lot of these CEOs and other leaders of companies are not being called on the carpet for putting their companies at risk, losing money, or outright incompetence.
Blog text (16) -
The manager had to call on the carpet the employee for repeatedly missing deadlines.
-
After the incident, the director decided to call on the carpet the team member responsible for the mistake.
-
She dreaded the moment when her supervisor would call her on the carpet about her performance.
Synonyms
89
4.6
To give someone a long serious talk that warns or scolds them about what they did
68
4.6
Publicly criticize a person or group for bad actions
55
2.2
Speak angrily to someone who has done something wrong
37
5.9
To criticize someone strongly
36
7.2
Scold someone angrily and severely
33
6.1
To tell someone they did something wrong, usually by a person in charge
26
7.7
To express strong disapproval of someone, often in an official statement
26
6.9
To tell someone firmly that you do not approve of their actions
22
7.0
Tell someone you are unhappy with what they did
18
6.3
To scold someone strongly for a mistake
13
7.0
Scold someone angrily in front of others
12
8.2
To criticize someone very strongly and angrily
5
8.3
Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
4
7.9
Scold someone very strongly for a mistake
3
6.3
To angrily tell someone they did something wrong
2
7.1
To scold someone angrily and severely
1
7.9
To scold someone strongly and warn them of punishment
1
8.0
To criticize someone or something very strongly in public
1
8.7
Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
1
5.8
Tell someone publicly that they did something wrong
1
8.6
To scold someone very strongly for a mistake
1
6.8
Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
Scold a person in front of others for a mistake
To have a boss or leader tell you off for doing something wrong
To tell someone they behaved badly in a serious way
To tell someone off angrily
Shout loudly at someone because they did something wrong
To scold someone angrily for something they did
To yell at or threaten someone to make them try harder
Antonyms
How Severe
70
3.3
- Formal
289
4.2
- Archaic
3
7.9
- Formal
33
6.1
31
6.8
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to severely reprimand' cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'call' (summon) + 'on the carpet' (a floor covering); the phrase is an idiomatic, culture-specific usage where the carpet does not transparently signal reprimand. A B1 learner who knows the individual words but has not seen the idiom would be unlikely to infer this meaning, so it should be classed as opaque.
Etymology
Call on the carpet is said to come from a simple office scene. One popular story says a boss would call an employee to his office and make them stand on the carpet while he scolded them, so the image of standing there came to mean 'to severely reprimand'.