call on the carpet

Idioms and Phrases

Summon for a scolding or rebuke, as in Suspecting a leak to the press, the governor called his press secretary on the carpet . This term began as on the carpet , which in the early 1700s referred to a cloth (carpet) covering a conference table and therefore came to mean “under consideration or discussion.” In 19th-century America, however, carpet meant “floor covering,” and the expression, first recorded in 1902, alluded to being called before or reprimanded by a person rich or powerful enough to have a carpet.

Related Words

• admonish
• berate
• blame
• castigate
• censure
• condemn
• rebuke
• reprimand
• reproach
• scold
• upbraid