crack the whip

Meaning

1. to use your authority or power to make sb work very hard, usually by treating them in a strict way

In the movies · 2

• Okay, guys. I hate to crack the whip, but it's kind of business meeting time.Knocked Up2007
• You crack the whip Shape-shift and trick the past again Send you my love on the wire Lift you up, every time EveryoneScott Pilgrim vs. the World2010

From the same entry

• get cracking
• not all, everything, cracked up to be
• a hard nut
• use a sledgehammer to crack a nut
• crack down
• crack on
• crack up
• crack up
• at the crack of dawn
• a fair crack of the whip