slap around


Also found in: Idioms.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

slap

noun
A quick, sharp blow, especially with the hand:
Informal: clip, spat.
verb
1. To hit with a quick, sharp blow of the hand:
Informal: clip, spat.
2. To criticize harshly and devastatingly:
Informal: roast.
Slang: slam.
Idioms: burn someone's ears, crawl all over, pin someone's ears back, put someone on the griddle, put someone on the hot seat, rake over the coals, read the riot act to.
phrasal verb
slap around
To be rough or brutal with:
knock about (or around), manhandle, rough (up).
Slang: mess up.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
What followed was a profanity-filled monologue, mostly bleeped out, while Grazer pretended to slap around Angel, who was in stitches the whole time.
A couple we are gonna just slap around and threaten their families but the other two we will put it on them heavily."
"He'd scream if I did something he didn't like, then it was a slap around the head.
"But we've just had a little slap around the back of the head to say: 'Hold on a minute, it's not all plain sailing.'" Coleman shouldered some of the blame after admitting he made changes to open the game up following the equaliser, admitting Georgia blew chances to win the game.
"We've just had a little slap around the back of the head to say 'hold on a minute, it's not all plain sailing."
Perhaps somebody should take me to one side and give me a good talking to or a slap around the head before I start buying gardening books, a dibber and a potting shed.
But boss Rowett (above) said: "If I heard one of my players talking next season then they would be getting a slap around the back of the head, because that's not what we need to be doing at the moment."
"If I heard one of my players talking next season then they would be getting a slap around the back of the head because that's not what we need to be doing at the moment."
First off, a school in Somerset gave its parents a slap around the chops for letting their kids arrive at school in a 'pretty shocking state', saying they were 'dirty, unkempt and not in appropriate school uniform'.
"But it wasn't picked up until he got a slap around the chops - that was going on all game.