Sternly tell someone off without swear words

You don't need words... there's a "look" that can tell someone off with silence. 😁

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The withering stare over the top of the specs that's so powerful it could strip paint. In my working life I used it time and again on many a miscreant. Reason I know it works is because I once overheard two workers in the warehouse, one of which, was saying to his companion: "I ****ing hate it when looks at you over the top of his glasses."

Not exactly telling someone off, but a put down using a whimsical, cynical, immediate comeback, will put anyone in their place. Winston Churchill was the past master at such putdowns. The banter he had with Bessie Braddock has gone down in history:

Bessie Braddock, the politician, who had a firebrand reputation, allegedly told Churchill: "If I were married to you, I'd put poison in your coffee."
To which Churchill is said to have retorted: "Madam, if I were married to you, I'd drink it."

In another exchange: Bessie Braddock: ‘Winston, you are drunk!’
Churchill: ‘Bessie, my dear, you are ugly. But, tomorrow, I shall be sober.’
 
Nothing ever shriveled my ego more than having a British person look at me, after I'd rattled on about something, pause, then say, "And you are?"
You could almost be quoting my wife. In her working life in The Ambulance Service a patient might tell her that they have this or that wrong with them, as if expecting some sort of specialist treatment. They got short shrift, instead they would be asked: "And where did you graduate from university with a medical degree?"
 

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