hỏi tội
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To have it in for someone: To be determined to blame, criticize, or punish a specific person; to hold a grudge against someone and seek to make them suffer for a perceived fault.
- To call to account / to demand retribution: To confront someone about their wrongdoing with the intent of making them answer for it or suffer punishment.
Usage Examples
- Verb:
- Cô giáo cứ hỏi tội tôi mãi về lỗi nhỏ đó. (The teacher keeps having it in for me over that small mistake.)
- Anh đừng hỏi tội đứa trẻ, nó không cố ý. (Don't call the child to account; it wasn't intentional.)
- Sếp đang hỏi tội nhân viên về vụ rò rỉ thông tin. (The boss is demanding retribution from the employee for the information leak.)
Advanced Usage
- The phrase often implies a persistent, targeted intent to punish, not just a single instance of questioning. It can be used in both serious contexts (legal, professional) and minor, everyday scolding.
Variants and Related Words
- Hỏi tội nhau (v): To mutually blame or call each other to account.
- Hai bên đang hỏi tội nhau về thất bại của dự án. (The two sides are calling each other to account for the project's failure.)
Synonyms
- To blame: To assign responsibility for a fault.
- To punish: To inflict a penalty for an offense.
- To hold accountable: To consider someone responsible and answerable.
Related Idioms
- Hỏi tội trước bàn thờ: An idiom suggesting a severe, solemn reckoning, as if before an ancestral altar.
- Việc này, về nhà bố mẹ sẽ hỏi tội trước bàn thờ cho mà xem. (For this, when we get home, our parents will call us to account before the family altar, you'll see.)
- Have it in for