Idiom
guilt trip
Meaning
A feeling of shame or embarrassment, especially if self-indulgent, unwarranted, exaggerated or felt over a significant period of time.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Do not try to guilt trip me into doing your chores.”
“My mother tried to guilt trip me for not visiting her enough, even though I call every week.”
“He often used a subtle guilt trip to manipulate his colleagues, making them feel responsible for his own lack of progress on the project.”
Examples
simple
“Do not try to guilt trip me into doing your chores.”
contextual
“My mother tried to guilt trip me for not visiting her enough, even though I call every week.”
complex
“He often used a subtle guilt trip to manipulate his colleagues, making them feel responsible for his own lack of progress on the project.”
Origin
From *guilt* + *trip*, first appearing in 1972. The term was recorded in the novel *Any Minute I Can Split* by Judith Rossner.
Key words
Related idioms
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