warning someone by scolding them to improve their behavior
giving a strong warning to someone to stop behaving badly
She’d been bearing bad behavior from her employee and thought it was time to read him the riot act.
The teacher read the riot act to his students when they had been asked to move out of the class for unfinished assignments but they did not.
The traffic policeman read the riot act to the biker who had been rash driving & was going to cause an accident.
Despite having talked to the paying guest politely for not leaving lights switched on when he leaves, the landlord decided to read him the riot act that day when he would arrive.
There is no origin for this idiom
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definition
Common phrase that has a specific meaning.