skin alive

1. Punish severely, as in If I find the guy who slashed my tire I'll skin him alive. This hyperbolic expression transfers the barbaric practice of flaying a live prisoner to other forms of punishment. [Colloquial mid-1800s]

Related Words

• assail 
• berate 
• damn 
• decry 
• defame 
• denigrate 
• denounce 
• disparage 
• malign 
• mistreat 
• revile 
• slander 
• smear