cut (one's) nose off to spite (one's) face
cut (one's) nose off to spite (one's) face
To seek retribution against someone else in a manner that is ultimately harmful or disadvantageous to oneself. He fired Tom for criticizing his managerial skills, but Tom accounts for nearly 75% of his branch's quarterly sales, so all he's really done is cut his nose off to spite his face. I know you're mad at your parents, but running away is only going to make your own life harder. Don't cut your nose off to spite your face.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
cut one's nose off to spite one's face
Prov. to hurt yourself in an attempt to hurt someone else. (Often in the form, "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face.") Isaac dropped out of school because he wanted to make his father angry; years later, he realized that he had cut off his nose to spite his face.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
cut off your nose to spite your face
orcut your nose off to spite your face
If someone cuts off their nose to spite their face, or cuts their nose off to spite their face, they do something to punish someone but in doing so harm themselves more than they harm the person they are punishing. The manager would probably like to leave Keane out of the squad but he knows that he'd be cutting his nose off to spite his face in losing a genuinely world-class player. Note: In this expression, `to spite' means to deliberately annoy or upset.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
cut off your nose to spite your face
disadvantage yourself in the course of trying to disadvantage another.This idea was proverbial for self-defeating malice in both medieval Latin and medieval French, and has been found in English since the mid 16th century.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
cut off your ˈnose to spite your ˈface
(informal) do something, for example because you are angry or proud, that is intended to hurt somebody else but in fact harms you: Keeping your class in after school as a punishment is cutting off your nose to spite your face, because you have to stay with them!This may come from the story of a Viking attack on a monastery. The nuns in the monastery cut off their own noses so that they would not be attractive to their attackers.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
cut off (one's) nose to spite (one's) face
To injure oneself in taking revenge against another.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
- bite (one's) nose off to spite (one's) face
- bite off (one's) nose to spite (one's) face
- cut nose off to spite face
- cut off (one's) nose to spite (one's) face
- cut off nose to spite face
- cut off one's nose to spite one's face
- cut off one's nose to spite one's face, to
- cut off your nose to spite your face
- spite
- don't cut off your nose to spite your face