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over the coals

See: HAUL OVER THE COALS or RAKE OVER THE COALS.

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Source: A Dictionary of American Idioms

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haul over the coals

[haul over the coals] or [rake over the coals] {v. phr.} To criticize sharply; rebuke; scold. * /The sergeant raked the soldier over the coals for being late for roll […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

coal

[coal] See: [CARRY COALS TO NEWCASTLE], [HAUL OVER THE COALS] or [RAKE OVER THE COALS], [HEAP COALS OF FIRE ON ONE'S HEAD]. A Dictionary of American Idioms

rake over the coals

[rake over the coals] See: [HAUL OVER THE COALS]. A Dictionary of American Idioms

carry coals to Newcastle

[carry coals to Newcastle] {v. phr.} To do something unnecessary; bring or furnish something of which there is plenty. * /The man who waters his grass after a good rain […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

Slang is

"very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid and ephemeral than ordinary language" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary) - learn ~600 slang expressions

An idiom is

an expression "whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements… or from the general grammatical rules of a language"

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