English · Idiom Attested

heads will roll

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

There will be some people dismissed or disgraced.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Sẽ có người bị sa thải hoặc mất uy tín

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

I rather think heads will roll.

Sir Paul sympathises with Mr Meeks … but says it's inevitable that heads will roll.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Euphemism (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Topics: Head

Common questions

What does “heads will roll” mean?

There will be some people dismissed or disgraced.

Is “heads will roll” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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