i'll give him beans
Preserved but no longer current.
I'll give him a thrashing. There is a similar French proverb, S'il me donne des pois, je lid donnerai des feves (i.e. If he gives me peas I will give him beans), I will give him tit for tat, a Roland for an Oliver.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “i'll give him beans” mean?
I'll give him a thrashing. There is a similar French proverb, S'il me donne des pois, je lid donnerai des feves (i.e. If he gives me peas I will give him beans), I will give him tit for tat, a Roland for an Oliver.
Is “i'll give him beans” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.