Hold Your Feet To The Fire Meaning & Sentence Examples

Hold Your Feet To The Fire Definition, Sentence Examples

HOLD YOUR FEET TO THE FIRE MEANING – Find out what hold your feet to the fire really means. Example sentences of this idiomatic expression can also be found here.

To “hold someone’s feet to the fire” is to demand that they keep their commitments. Its roots are in medieval methods of torture. During the Middle Ages, prisoners or suspects of crimes would occasionally be forced to hold their feet over a fire or other flame until the flesh burned off, inflicting excruciating suffering.

According to some sources, this method of punishment involved binding a person’s feet to a metal frame or grate and then heating the soles of their feet. This would be used to compel information or confessions from captives while also causing them great pain. Holding someone’s feet to the fire, in a metaphorical sense, meant punishing them for not performing their obligations.

Hold Your Feet To The Fire:

insist on someone keeping their word or upholding their commitments.
compel someone to fulfill their promises.
putting pressure or coercion on someone to fulfill their obligations.
impose penalties or repercussions on someone for failing to fulfill their obligation.
aggressively demand accountability and outcomes.
Make careful to follow through and ensure that everything is completed.

Here are examples of sentences that use hold your feet to the fire:

The owner of the company held the new managers’ feet to the fire and insisted they meet aggressive sales targets in their fourth quarter.
Activists held politicians’ feet to the fire on issues like economic inequality and climate change.
Parents often have to hold their kid’s feet to the fire to ensure they fulfill their homework and chores.

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