light into

English

Etymology

Phrasal verb from light (“to get down, drop, come”, verb) +‎ into (“against”, preposition).

Verb

light into (third-person singular simple present lights into, present participle lighting into, simple past lit into or lighted into, past participle lit into)

1. (transitive) To set upon or attack.
   • 1885, Mark Twain, chapter 22, in Huckleberry Finn:

     [H]e lit into that horse with his whip.

   • 1915, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 11, in Anne of the Island:

     [S]he lit into everybody else in the church and gave them a fearful raking down, calling them right out by name and telling them how they all had behaved, and casting up all the quarrels and scandals of the past ten years.

   • 1935 April 25, “U.S. Judge and Wife Killed by Bandits”, in Montreal Gazette, retrieved 16 Jan. 2010:

     "Father grabbed the two guns and told me to light into the other man. I jumped on him and started choking him."

   • 2003 January 13, Diane Roberts, “Graham would make Florida proud”, in St. Petersburg Times, retrieved 16 Jan. 2010:

     He speaks with more passion than ever, lighting into George W. Bush for fumbling the economy.

Synonyms

• (attack physically): assail, assault, lace into, lam into, rip into, tear into
• (attack verbally): criticize, dress down, excoriate, lace into, lam into, rebuke, reprimand, rip into, scold, tear into
• See also Thesaurus:reprehend