Context 1:
Example:
Natalia:
Victor! Mind if I eat lunch with you?
Victor:
Sure, if you want
Natalia:
What’s wrong? Why do you seem so upset?
Victor:
I just got reamed out by my boss in
front of everyone.
Natalia:
Oh no! What happened?
Victor:
I was working on this report for him, and I thought it was due Monday. But it
turns out, he wanted it today for his lunch meeting.
Natalia:
Uh oh.
Victor:
Yeah. He yelled at me in front of my desk, then slammed the door of his office. Then he stormed over to the meeting room and
didn’t say anything when he walked by. So now I’m not even sure I still have a
job after lunch.
Natalia:
I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’m sure he will calm down and realize it was just a
misunderstanding. Still, sorry he reamed
you out, especially with
everyone around.
Meaning: The expression “to ream (someone) out” means to
very strongly and angrily criticize someone. Here, Victor says that he just got
“reamed out” by his boss,
which means that his boss probably yelled at him in a critical way. Below that,
Natalia apologizes that Victor’s boss “reamed him out.” Notice that in the first example, since the
idiom is happening to the subject, there is no “someone” in the idiom
(“I just got reamed out“),
but in the second example, since the idiom is happening to the object, there is
a pronoun in the idiom (“sorry he reamed you out“).
https://www.languagesystems.com/
