settle an old score (with someone)

settle an old score (with someone)

To get vengeance on someone for a past wrong or grievance; to punish someone for causing one harm or misfortune in the past. The former champion entered the competition looking to settle an old score with the young player who dethroned him two years prior. After five years in hiding from the law, Hofstadter decided it was time to return to town and settle some old scores.

See also: an, old, score, settle

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

settle old scores, to

To avenge an injury; to get even. This term alludes to settling up accounts or paying a bill, known as a “score” in seventeenth-century England. Earlier versions of this expression were to cut old scores and to quit old scores. In the eighteenth century it was also put as to pay off or rub out old scores.

See also: old, settle, to

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer