settle a score
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to punish or get revenge on someone for something they did
Literally: to resolve an account
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
But the numerous and well - educated Isaak people of the north, some 50,000 of whom have been killed by the government, are the type to settle scores.
Old scores may have been settled with victory over Tipperary, but he's quick to emphasise that Galway have won nothing yet.
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 “settle a score” mean?
to punish or get revenge on someone for something they did Literally: to resolve an account
Is “settle a score” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.