to send packing
8
6.5
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
echar
- We sent them packing, but she's probably gonna want some explanations.
- enough to send packing
- then they sent packing
- send packing too
Examples
-
Any ideas who might be able to step up and send him packing?
Blog text (25) -
Face your enemies with a bold front, and you can send them packing.
Fiction book (1999) -
Izzo sits them or sends them packing if they do not.
Blog text (4) -
He'll send you packing.
Fiction book (2000) -
After the argument escalated, the manager decided to send packing the rude customer.
-
Their constant complaints finally made the hotel staff send them packing without a refund.
-
When I caught him lying, I wasted no time and sent him packing from my office.
Synonyms
∞
3.1
To leave out a sound or part of a word
512
3.0
Force someone to leave a place or group
236
3.0
To force someone to leave a place, job, or group
194
5.0
Force someone to leave a place, such as a school or country, often by official order
110
2.7
To tell people to leave a meeting or room
70
3.8
Force someone or something to leave a place
46
4.4
To make someone leave a job by pressure or threats
43
3.0
Make someone leave a job or group because of a problem
36
2.8
To make someone or something leave a place
32
4.2
Force someone to leave a place
31
6.2
Force someone to leave a group or place because others reject them
26
2.6
To make people or things leave by scaring them
15
5.8
Force someone to leave a job or organization suddenly
12
9.4
Suddenly stop seeing or talking to someone
10
4.9
To make someone leave a place
7
7.4
Make someone leave a group or job in a public, shameful way
7
8.6
Get rid of someone or something you no longer want
6
3.3
Make someone or something leave a place by running after and frightening them
6
6.7
Tell someone to leave a place firmly
5
6.4
Tell someone to leave a place in a rude or angry way
4
8.5
To tell someone to leave their job or to stop using something
4
7.9
Make someone leave quickly and forcefully
3
5.1
To lead someone politely out of a room or building at the end of an event
1
4.0
To force someone to leave a place, group or job
1
7.1
To force someone or something out of a place by searching
1
8.2
Force someone to leave a place or job
End someone's job or relationship suddenly and without warning
To end a relationship or job suddenly and harshly
To suddenly end someone's job or a relationship, often without warning
To stop employing someone, often suddenly as punishment
Antonyms
How Forceful
194
5.0
512
3.0
- Informal
8
6.5
- Informal
5
6.4
70
3.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'send' (cause to go) and 'packing' (luggage/packing up) give a reasonably inferable image of causing someone to leave with their belongings, so a learner who knows both words could guess the basic idea of being sent away. However, the idiomatic nuance of abrupt dismissal and explicit unwelcome is not fully predictable from the literal meanings, and 'packing' is used metaphorically here, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Send packing may come from the simple image of telling someone to leave with their bags and go away. You send them off and their packing is their packed things, so the phrase means 'to make someone leave suddenly and clearly show they are not wanted'.