get on someone's case

English

Alternative forms

• on someone's case, be on someone's case; all variants of earlier on someone's back

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

get on someone's case (third-person singular simple present gets on someone's case, present participle getting on someone's case, simple past got on someone's case, past participle (UK) got on someone's case or (US) gotten on someone's case)

1. (informal) To lecture, berate, or complain to somebody, especially to find fault or criticize.

   His boss was always getting on his case about his standards of dress, even though he worked well and seldom left the back room.

Synonyms

• harangue, harass

Translations

lecture, berate or complain to somebody

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 挑錯／挑错 (tiāocuò), 挑剔 (zh) (tiāoti), 找岔子 (zh) (zhǎo chàzi)

• Finnish: saarnata (fi), morkata (fi), kitistä (fi), narista (fi), marmattaa (fi), valittaa (fi), moittia (fi), urputtaa (fi)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: agarrársela con alguien (South America), agárraselas con alguien (South America)