a rap on the knuckles
a rap over the knuckles

A rap on the knuckles, it seems, can sometimes go a long way.

Was it going to be a rap on the knuckles for quality?

When the prospect of peace raises its hand, it usually results in a rap on the knuckles.

Now he'd get a rap on the knuckles for making Fatty ring Headquarters.

He had received a rap on the knuckles when he had deserved to lose his job.

Mime gives us a rap on the knuckles to remind us that there's a body to be accounted for.

Nothing fancy, nothing digital, and when something needs fixing give it a rap on the knuckles or a smidgeon of oil.

Since the rear admiral knew the potential value of the study, Zach was slipped through with a rap on the knuckles.

By midsale, he was crisply closing the door, with a sharp tock of his gavel, like a rap on the knuckles to recalcitrant children.

Give Justice Thurgood Marshall a rap on the knuckles for violating the tradition inhibiting political remarks by members of the Supreme Court.

The EU is willing to help the Greek people now, but Greece must take a good look at itself and if necessary give itself a rap on the knuckles.

We cannot have a race to the back of the queue as Member States scurry to avoid attracting outside investment for fear of getting a rap on the knuckles from Brussels.

I placed my hand on the drum so I could diminish the noise and asked the drummer what was going on and got a rap on the knuckles for my pain.

"For so many children, disapproval is sufficient, or a rap on the knuckles," she said to Merelan, who was genuinely worried when Halanna showed no signs of repentance after the second chastisement.

But though the board approved the proposed expansion, Dr. Hayot found herself on the receiving end of a rap on the knuckles and an impromptu civics lesson from more than one board member.

Even Josie sat still, and let Emil bring her berries; enjoying her young lady-hood, till Ted stole her cake, when she forgot manners, and chastised him with a rap on the knuckles.

A Rap on the Knuckles The go-between was supposedly the president of Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin, a transport company in need of the governing party's support to get lucrative licenses to operate throughout Japan.

But the Bush administration, though ready to invade Iraq at the slightest hint of a nuclear weapons program, tried to play down the story, and its response - cutting off shipments of fuel oil - was no more than a rap on the knuckles.

It may seem churlish at this point to recall that when Singapore first began a campaign to be kind to tourists, in 1978, officials got a rap on the knuckles from Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime Minister who now holds the title of Senior Minister.

Xu Yun was on the second level of the hierarchy, a young minister, said to be brilliant and on his way; but he'd been given a rap on the knuckles for going personally into Tiananmen Square in June 1989 to talk to the students and peddle a soft line to bring the tension down.

He felt it right to give him a rap over the knuckles.

"Well, it could be because she did two years and you got a rap over the knuckles."

And a rap over the knuckles for not making up its mind about what it intended to do."

It will be possible to give a rap over the knuckles without wholly cutting off the right hand that has offended.

No possible blame can fall on Doctor Syn for killing him, unless it is a rap over the knuckles from the University Authorities.

I love artists' late works-when they display a completely free style because it no longer matters whether their work will earn them applause or a rap over the knuckles.

MPs have given the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) a rap over the knuckles for not doing enough to ensure disabled employees and clients can use its IT systems.

To insist upon the inquest in these circumstances could only have been for the purpose of procuring a rapping over the knuckles in public of that authority and/or a convenient means of obtaining evidence for a subsequent claim against it.

The sequel - nine days later - was a rap over the knuckles by the Press Council - "strongly deprecating as contrary to the best traditions of British journalism the holding by the Daily Mirror of a public poll in the matter of Princess Margaret and Group Captain Townsend."