catch heat

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catch heat (third-person singular simple present catches heat, present participle catching heat, simple past and past participle caught heat)

1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To get into trouble with somebody; to be scolded or chastised.
   • 1989, Edwin C. Sims, Capitalism, in Spite of it All, page 296:

     Another area in which corporations have been catching heat is in the area of environmental pollution, and justifiably so.

   Synonym: catch hell