be taken to task (by someone)

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be taken to task (by someone)

To be scolded, rebuked, reprimanded, or held accountable (by someone). I was taken to task by the headmaster for disrupting class again. It's not entirely fair that the bankers are the only ones being taken to task for the economic collapse, when a great many politicians are to blame as well.

See also: taken, task

References in classic literature ?

For thou shouldst know, Sancho, if thou dost not know, that two things alone beyond all others are incentives to love, and these are great beauty and a good name, and these two things are to be found in Dulcinea in the highest degree, for in beauty no one equals her and in good name few approach her; and to put the whole thing in a nutshell, I persuade myself that all I say is as I say, neither more nor less, and I picture her in my imagination as I would have her to be, as well in beauty as in condition; Helen approaches her not nor does Lucretia come up to her, nor any other of the famous women of times past, Greek, Barbarian, or Latin; and let each say what he will, for if in this I am taken to task by the ignorant, I shall not be censured by the critical.

View in context

I AM taken to task by foul persons who don't have the courage to identify themselves.

Shame of nameless; Your shout

I am taken to task by the delightful Jo Malin for announcing she had turned 40 a month before the due day.

A bitter blow to one's ego

I AM taken to task by a reader, John Hopkins, over my proposed beer-embargo on Carlsberg Tetley products.

Give pubs a chance

For my harsh remarks about Hillary Rodham Clinton's It Takes Village I am taken to task by Ruth Rosen, professor of history at the University of California, Davis.