reopen

open old wounds

To bring up or remind someone of a painful, tragic, or unfortunate past event or situation. Seeing Jessica with her new girlfriend opened a lot of old wounds this afternoon. The fight got pretty nasty, and we both started opening old wounds from years ago.

See also: old, open, wound

reopen old wounds

To bring up or remind someone of a painful, tragic, or unfortunate past event or situation. Seeing Jessica with her new girlfriend reopened a lot of old wounds this afternoon. The fight got pretty nasty, and we both started reopening old wounds from years ago.

See also: old, reopen, wound

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

open old wounds

or

reopen old wounds

If something or someone opens old wounds or reopens old wounds, they remind you of an unpleasant experience in the past that you would prefer to forget. I didn't raise the subject again — I was in no hurry to open old wounds. It is said that the row is reopening old wounds among Conservative MPs.

See also: old, open, wound

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

reopen old ˈwounds

remind somebody of something unpleasant that happened or existed in the past: Look, let’s try not to reopen any old wounds this time, OK?

See also: old, reopen, wound

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017