English Reference

Idiom

cut off one's nose to spite one's face

Meaning

To harm oneself as a result of attempting to harm an adversary.

Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Examples

“Don't cut off your nose to spite your face by quitting now.”

“By refusing to work with the team just to annoy his boss, he is cutting off his nose to spite his face.”

“She rejected the generous settlement offer out of pure anger, effectively cutting off her nose to spite her face while leaving herself with nothing.”

Examples

simple

“Don't cut off your nose to spite your face by quitting now.”

contextual

“By refusing to work with the team just to annoy his boss, he is cutting off his nose to spite his face.”

complex

“She rejected the generous settlement offer out of pure anger, effectively cutting off her nose to spite her face while leaving herself with nothing.”

Key words

Related idioms

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English Reference