wringer
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Related to wringer: Clothes wringer, hand wringer
be put through the wringer
To be subjected to some ordeal, difficulty, trial, or punishment; to undergo an unpleasant experience. Between my mother's bout with cancer, Jenny losing her job, and the bank threatening to foreclose on the house, our family has really been put through the wringer this year. Jake wasn't a great fit for the military, and he was constantly being put through the wringer for disobedience.
get (one's) tits in a wringer
rude slang To become angry or upset. Look, don't get your tits in a wringer—I barely bumped your car.
go through the wringer
To be subjected to some ordeal, difficulty, trial, or punishment; to undergo an unpleasant experience. Between my mother's bout with cancer, Jenny losing her job, and the bank threatening to foreclose on the house, our family has really gone through the wringer this year. I really had to go through the wringer with that disciplinary hearing.
put (one) through the wringer
To subject one to some ordeal, difficulty, trial, or punishment; to force one to undergo an unpleasant experience. My mother's recent bout with cancer has really put us through the wringer this year.
put through
To initiate something that succeeds in being accepted, implemented, or completed. A noun or pronoun can be used between "put" and "through." In my time as senator, I put through a number of legislative measures that helped curb gun violence.
through the wringer
Through some ordeal, difficulty, trial, or punishment; through an unpleasant experience. Between my mother's bout with cancer, Jenny losing her job, and the bank threatening to foreclose on the house, our family has really been put through the wringer this year. Jake wasn't a great fit for the military, and he was constantly being put through the wringer for disobedience.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
put someone or something through (to someone)
to put someone's telephone call through to someone. Will you please put me through to the international operator? Please put my call through.
put someone through something
to cause someone to have to endure something. The doctor said he hated to put me through all these tests, but that it was medically necessary.
put someone through the wringer
Fig. to give someone a difficult time; to interrogate someone thoroughly. (Alludes to putting something through an old-fashioned clothes wringer.) The lawyer really put the witness through the wringer! The teacher put the students through the wringer.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
put through
1. Bring to a successful conclusion, as in We put through a number of new laws. [Mid-1800s]
2. Make a telephone connection, as in Please put me through to the doctor. [Late 1800s]
3. Cause to undergo, especially something difficult or troublesome, as in He put me through a lot during this last year. The related expression, put someone through the wringer, means "to give someone a hard time," as in The lawyer put the witness through the wringer. The wringer alluded to is the old-fashioned clothes wringer, in which clothes are pressed between two rollers to extract moisture. [First half of 1900s]
wringer
see under put through (the wringer).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
go through the wringer
INFORMALIf you go through the wringer, you experience a very difficult period or situation which makes you ill or unhappy. The last couple of years have been hard for her — she freely admits she has `been through the wringer' in her personal life. Note: You can also say that you are put through the wringer. He was put through the wringer by the tabloids who seemed, for no good reason, to hate him.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
put someone through the wringer (or the mangle)
subject someone to a very stressful experience, especially a severe interrogation. informal 1984 Louise Erdrich Love Medicine I saw that he had gone through the wringer. He was red-eyed, gaunt, and he was drunk.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
go/put somebody through the ˈwringer
(informal) have, or make somebody have, a difficult or unpleasant experience, or a series of them: He’s been through the wringer lately, what with his divorce, and then losing his job. ♢ Those interviewers really put me through the wringer!In the past, a wringer was a device that squeezed the water out of clothes that had been washed.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
put through
v.
1. To cause something to pass from one side of a boundary, threshold, or opening to the other: I put the thread through the eye of the needle.
2. To bring something to completion: They put the project through on time.
3. To cause someone or something to complete a process, especially a process of approval: Congress has recently put through a number of new laws. I had to work two jobs to put my child through college.
4. To cause someone or something to undergo or experience something unpleasant or difficult: They put me through a lot of trouble. We put all our products through a series of tests.
5. To connect some telephone call or caller: Can you put the call through to my office? The operator put me through on the office line.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
put (someone) through the wringer
Slang To subject to a severe trial or ordeal.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
through the mill, to go/to be put
To undergo hardship or rough treatment. The analogy here is to being ground down like grain. The figurative use of the term dates from the nineteenth century. “We’ve all passed through that mill,” wrote Rolf Bolderwood (A Colonial Reformer, 1890). A newer synonymous phrase, dating from the mid-1900s, is to put someone through the wringer, alluding to a wringer that squeezes moisture out of something. For example, “When they suspect child abuse, the police really put parents through the wringer.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer