give a hard time

give someone a hard time

1. to criticize someone and make them feel guilty about something that they have done. I came home late one night last week and she's been giving me a hard time about it ever since. (often + about)

2. to treat someone severely or to cause difficulties for them. She'd always wanted to be a teacher, but those kids gave her a really hard time.

See also: give, hard, time

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give someone a hard time

to make things difficult for someone. Josh's pals were giving him a hard time about his girlfriend. We were trying to help Tim, not just giving him a hard time about his bad grades this year.

See also: give, hard, time