put someone in their place

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

put someone in their place (third-person singular simple present puts someone in their place, present participle putting someone in their place, simple past and past participle put someone in their place)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To remind someone of their position.
2. (idiomatic) To bring somebody down; to humble or rebuke.

   His quips at the party aimed to put the CEO in his place.

   • 2014 November 18, Daniel Taylor, “England and Wayne Rooney see off Scotland in their own back yard”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The response, culminating in Rooney finishing off a slick exchange of incisive, pass-them-to-death football, quickly put Scotland back in their place.

   • December 13 2021, Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger, Alejandro de la Garza, “Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, in Time Magazine‎^[2]:

     Musk has spent a lifetime defying the haters; now, it seems, he’s finally in position to put them in their place.

Translations

to remind someone of his position

• Dutch: terechtwijzen (nl), op zijn plaats zetten
• German: in seine Schranken weisen, zurechtweisen (de)

to humble or rebuke

• Dutch: de oren wassen, op zijn plaats zetten, terechtwijzen (nl)
• Finnish: näyttää jollekin paikkansa
• French: remettre à sa place (fr)
• German: runterputzen, vorführen (de)
• Hungarian: helyre tesz, rendreutasít (hu)
• Italian: mettere al proprio posto
• Russian: поста́вить на ме́сто (ru) (postávitʹ na mésto)
• Spanish: poner a alguien en su lugar
• Swedish: sätta någon på plats

See also

• cut down to size
• pull down a peg
• soften someone's cough

Further reading

• “put sb in their place”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “put someone in their place”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “put somebody in their place” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.