cut (someone's) throat

cut (someone's) throat

To bring about or be the cause of someone's ruin, downfall, or failure. That discount supermarket is cutting our throats, there's no way we can compete with their prices! Jim set out to cut his brother's throat after finding out that he'd been swindled.

See also: cut, throat

cut one's (own) throat

Fig. [for someone] to bring about one's (own) failure. If I were to run for office, I'd just be cutting my throat. Judges who take bribes are cutting their own throats.

See also: cut, throat

cut someone's throat

1. Be the means of someone's ruin, as in Joe would cut her throat if she got in his way. One can also cut one's own throat, that is, spoil one's own chances, as in Alice cut her own throat by her repeated absences. This hyperbolic term alludes to actual murder (or suicide). [c. 1500]

2. cut one another's throats. Engage in destructive competition. For example, With their price war the two stores were cutting each other's throats. This usage gave rise, by 1880, to the idiom cutthroat competition, for vicious competitive practices.

See also: cut, throat