TALKING TO

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does talking to mean? 

• TALKING TO (noun)
  The noun TALKING TO has 1 sense:

1. a lengthy rebuke

  Familiarity information: TALKING TO used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TALKING TO (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A lengthy rebuke

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

lecture; speech; talking to

Context example:

the teacher gave him a talking to

Hypernyms ("talking to" is a kind of...):

rebuke; reprehension; reprimand; reproof; reproval (an act or expression of criticism and censure)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "talking to"):

preaching; sermon (a moralistic rebuke)

curtain lecture (a private lecture to a husband by his wife)

 Context examples 

Mrs. Norris was talking to Julia, and did not hear.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Start by talking to your health care provider.

(Alcoholism, NIH: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)

Do not stop taking your medicines without talking to your doctor.

(Antidepressants, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)

Instead of drawing his brother off to a window while they waited for dinner, he was talking to Miss Fairfax.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Being given to low company, she was very much in the habit of talking to them on the beach, Miss Dartle, and sitting by their boats.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Had I known it, I would have had the pleasure of talking to him about you.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

In the meantime the love-master was patting White Fang and talking to him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Mr. Mason stood near the fire, talking to Colonel and Mrs. Dent, and appeared as merry as any of them.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You can leave the talking to me.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But I hope you will not mind it: it is all for Jane's sake, you know; and there is no occasion for talking to him, except just now and then.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)