throw the book at

1. Punish or reprimand severely, as in I just knew the professor would throw the book at me for being late with my paper. This expression originally meant “sentence a convicted person to the maximum penalties allowed,” the book being the roster of applicable laws. Its figurative use dates from the mid-1900s.

Example Sentences

And if the court has now decided to throw the book at him in the Libya affair, maybe it is because the charge of trying to elicit election funds from a foreign dictator is actually a rather serious one.

From BBC

“Throw the book at them,” Fred Sutton, a senior vice president with the California Apartment Assn., told the L.A.

From Los Angeles Times

But working against him is a long pattern of behavior that seems designed in a lab to infuriate a judge, who may also choose to lean on a presentencing report that says to throw the book at Bankman-Fried.

From Slate

"If average New Yorkers went into a bank and submitted false documents, the government would throw the book at them, and the same should be true for former presidents. Last I checked tourism is up. Wall Street is doing just fine."

From Salon

Premier Chris Minns has added: "If there's been a breach of the law then, of course, we'll throw the book at them."

From BBC

Related Words

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• sentence