Fig. to reprimand a person. (When done by someone of clear superiority. Haul is stronger than call.)One more error like that and the big boss will call you on the carpet.I'm sorry it went wrong. I really hope the regional manager doesn't call me on the carpet again.
Summon for a scolding or rebuke, as in Suspecting a leak to the press, the governor called his press secretary on the carpet. This term began as on the carpet, which in the early 1700s referred to a cloth (carpet) covering a conference table and therefore came to mean "under consideration or discussion." In 19th-century America, however, carpet meant "floor covering," and the expression, first recorded in 1902, alluded to being called before or reprimanded by a person rich or powerful enough to have a carpet.