haul someone over the coals vs scold

haul someone over the coals

verb
  • To express anger with someone in no uncertain terms when they do something wrong. 

scold

verb
  • To rebuke angrily. 

  • Of birds, to make harsh vocalisations in aggression. 

  • Of birds, to make vocalisations that resemble human scolding. 

noun
  • A person who habitually scolds, in particular a troublesome and angry woman. 

How often have the words haul someone over the coals and scold occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )