Quote Originally Posted by Paul G. View Post
Песочить/пропесочивать кого-нибудь - "Начальник пропесочил нас за опоздание"
Thanks for the great list, Paul! I'm curious about the history of some of these expressions, but I couldn't find good-quality etymologies for them online. For instance, I wonder if песочить is a figurative reference to "sandblasting" (пескоструйная обработка)?

Костерить кого-нибудь - "Я мысленно костерил себя за эту ошибку" (= ругать)
And I would guess (but possibly I'm mistaken) that this one might be related to костёр, "a bonfire/campfire"? (Compare with English "to rake/haul someone over the coals" = ругать)

Всыпать кому-нибудь по первое число - "Отец всыпал ему по первое число за поцарапанную машину"
From Googling, I found that this one has an interesting etymology -- here, первое число is understood to mean "the first day of next month." So, apparently, the original meaning of the phrase was kinda-sorta analogous to the English "If you don't behave yourself, I'll spank your butt/bum/fanny/tuchus so hard, you won't be able to sit down until next month!!!" But nowadays the phrase doesn't literally refer to physical punishments such as spankings/beatings.

Накрутить хвост(а) [кому-нибудь]
Does this one refer (metaphorically) to "twisting the tail of a dog/cat", or to "roughly pulling someone's hair"? I know that хвост can refer to the hairstyle that is known as a "ponytail" in English.

Устраивать кому-нибудь головомойку
Намыливать кому-нибудь шею - "За такие дела начальник намылит нам шею!"
Both of these give me a mental picture of a small child crying because he didn't want to have a bath, and his mother was being too rough while she washed his hair, and shampoo got into his eyes...