jump down someone's throat
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To strongly and abruptly criticize or scold someone
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Phản đối hoặc la mắng ai đó một cách mạnh mẽ và đột ngột
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: to leap into someone's throat
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
I was about to say, before you jumped down my throat, if your plans need altering in any way.’
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. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “jump down someone's throat” mean?
To strongly and abruptly criticize or scold someone Literally: to leap into someone's throat
Is “jump down someone's throat” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.