put someone through their paces

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put (someone) through (their) paces (third-person singular simple present puts (someone) through (their) paces, present participle putting (someone) through (their) paces, simple past and past participle put (someone) through (their) paces)

1. (literally, equestrianism) To direct a horse to walk, canter, trot, etc.
   • 1916, Vance Barnum, Joe Strong on the Trapeze‎^[1]:

     She put Rosebud through his paces in the ring, and received her share of applause at the antics of the clever horse.

2. (figurative) To test several or all functions or training of a person, animal, machine, etc.

   The new fire chief really put us through our paces: we had to wash all the fire trucks and then had two different fire drills.

   When I test-drove the new car, the salesman let me take it out to the freeway to put it through its paces.

   • 1876 June, Mark Twain, “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut”, in The Atlantic‎^[2]:

     I have known consciences to come all the way from China and Russia to see a person of that kind put through his paces, on a special occasion.

   • 1909 August 24, “German Sonder Yachts”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN, page 6:

     All three of the German sonder yacht challengers–Hevella, Seehund, and Margarethe, were put through their paces today for the first time since their arrival in quest of the President Taft and Gov. Draper Cups.

   • 2008 July 21, Megan McArdle, “Exurbs delenda est”, in The Atlantic‎^[4]:

     I had my first taste of a collapsing exurb last night. On our way home from the beach, a friend and I decided to put the GPS through its paces and have the thing find us a grocery store close to our route.

   • 2014 March 27, “Mars yard ready for Red Planet rover”, in ESA‎^[5], archived from the original on 2020-10-23:

     A state-of-the-art ‘Mars yard’ is now ready to put the ExoMars rover through its paces before the vehicle is launched to the Red Planet in 2018.

   • 2016 August 5, Justin McCurry, “Last supper? Japan's diners divided over killer puffer fish”, in The Guardian‎^[6], →ISSN:

     “The hardest part is ensuring the parts that can be eaten are absolutely clean,” says Takahashi, one of dozens of chefs being put through their paces at a culinary school in Tokyo in preparation for a test to obtain their fugu licence.

   • 2023 April 2, Dan Sabbagh, Ed Ram, “Surrounded and outgunned, Ukraine’s tank crews prepare for battle of Bakhmut”, in The Guardian‎^[7], →ISSN, image caption:

     Swedish instructor Magnus puts the Ukrainian troops through their paces.

• move through the gears
• take for a spin