From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgive somebody the third degreegive somebody the third degreeinformalASK A QUESTION to ask someone a lot of questions in order to get information from them I got home after midnight and Dad gave me the third degree. → third degree
Examples from the Corpus
give somebody the third degree• And would Feargal now give him the third degree?• I was just out with friends - you don't have to give me the third degree.• Whenever one of my boyfriends came to the house, Dad would give them the third degree. 