To start on at someone is British informal for launching into criticism or a complaint directed at a specific person — nagging, berating, or having a go at them, often repeatedly and without much provocation. It implies persistence; you don't just criticize once, you start on at them and keep going. It's the verbal equivalent of a dog with a bone. Common in northern English dialects, it conveys the kind of low-level domestic friction that everyone has experienced but not everyone has a snappy phrase for.
She came home and immediately started on at him about the dishes he'd left in the sink all day.
No comments yet — say something.
(informal, UK) (To criticize).
No comments yet — say something.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.