hold someone's feet to the fire

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Also, keep someone's feet to the fire. Pressure someone to consent to or undertake something, as in The only way you'll get him to agree is to hold his feet to the fire. This idiom alludes to an ancient test of courage or form of torture in which a person's feet were so placed. It began to be used figuratively in the second half of the 1900s. Also see hold a gun to someone's head.

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ARE YOU A TRUE BLUE CHAMPION OF THESE "BLUE" SYNONYMS?

We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.

Question 1 of 8

Which of the following words describes “sky blue”?

navy

beryl

azure

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Words nearby hold someone's feet to the fire

hold on to, hold on to your hat, holdout, hold out on, holdover, hold someone's feet to the fire, hold still for, hold sway over, hold the bag, hold the fort, hold the line

How to use hold someone's feet to the fire in a sentence

And yes, someone has already called Spencer a “Small Fry,” har har.
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France 24 is providing live, round-the-clock coverage of both scenes as they progress.
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But what is there more irresponsible than playing with the fire of an imagined civil war in the France of today?
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For someone with anorexia, self-starvation makes them feel better.
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“Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby off TV,” she continued.
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Most of the men leaped up, caught hold of spears or knives, and rushed out.
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He was too drowsy to hold the thought more than a moment in his mind, much less to reflect upon it.
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Each day she resolved, "To-morrow I will tell Felipe;" and when to-morrow came, she put it off again.
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He reached forward and took her hands, and if Mrs. Vivian had come in she would have seen him kneeling at her daughter's feet.
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Sleek finds it far harder work than fortune-making; but he pursues his Will-o'-the-Wisp with untiring energy.
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