have someone's guts for garters
"have-someone-s-guts-for-garters" is a 26-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“have someone's guts for garters” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 31
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To reprimand severely.
Corpus desk
Index EN-have-someone-s-guts-for- · have someone's guts for garters · English
have someone's guts for garters · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 31 letters
- VOW-10 10 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | have someone's guts for garters |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 31 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “have someone's guts for garters” in English
Rare enough to double-check
have someone's guts for garters is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To reprimand severely.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for have someone's guts for garters, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: By metaphor from the way that humans use animal intestines as catgut for various tensile applications; compare have someone's hide. The correct English form is have someone's guts for garters, spelled H-A-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E-'-S- -G-U-T-S- -F-O-R- -G-A-R-T-E-R-S.
Definition
- 1To reprimand severely.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how have someone's guts for garters appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
If you go out and play and get your clothes dirty, I'll have your guts for garters!
Etymology
By metaphor from the way that humans use animal intestines as catgut for various tensile applications; compare have someone's hide.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.