Idiom On The Carpet

This phrase originates from the military where it used to be that only senior officers had carpet in their offices.

Idiom on the carpet.

When you are called to the bosses office since supposedly they are the only ones who have carpet and its definitely not for a good reason i e you are in trouble something has not gone according to plan and either maybe you are responsible and or have some explaining to do. Like many idioms its meaning if not actually opaque is not entirely transparent. Called out on the carpet. To be in trouble with someone in authority.

What is the carpet that the expression is figuratively referring to. It summons up a picture of a boss reprimanding an underling for a misdemeanour. To call someone on the carpet is a common idiom some would even say common enough to be a cliché meaning to reprimand a subordinate or demand that they explain their actions. Summon for a scolding or rebuke as in suspecting a leak to the press the governor called his press secretary on the carpet.

To be in trouble with someone in authority 2. An idiom is a word group of words or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is not easily deduced from its literal definition. Be on the carpet definition. The idiom call on the carpet has had an interesting journey.

Call on the carpet. Call someone on the carpet. If someone is on the carpet they are in trouble for doing something wrong. The phrase call on the carpet is primarily an american idiom that has its roots in an idiom popular in the eighteenth century though today s meaning of call on the carpet did not come into use until the nineteenth century.

What does on the carpet mean. You can also call someone on the carpet. This term began as on the carpet which in the early 1700s referred to a cloth carpet covering a conference table and therefore came to mean under consideration or discussion. The first idiom that may be associated with this phrase is on the carpet a term in common use in the 1700s to mean under consideration.

On the carpet is the process of being reprimanded. At this time a carpet was a thick tablecloth used on a table where business is done. To be called on the carpet meant that a lower ranking soldier was brought into the senior s office to be formally reprimanded for an offense. To call someone on the carpet is a common idiom some would even say common enough to be a cliché meaning to reprimand a subordinate or demand that they explain their actions.

This goes back to the days of the victorian civil service when attainment of a certain status carried with it the right to a piece of carpet in the office.