Word.ws English Dictionary

bit the hand that fed one

bit the hand that fed one is the simple past of bite the hand that feeds one.

Meaning of bite the hand that feeds one

Verb

bite the hand that feeds one (third-person singular simple present bites the hand that feeds one, present participle biting the hand that feeds one, simple past bit the hand that fed one, past participle bitten the hand that fed one)

  1. (idiomatic) To cause harm to a benefactor (especially one that one is dependent on, thus with the idea that this behaviour is self-damaging).
    • Granted that it is not "exquisitely rational" to bite the hand that feeds you, yet that is just what clients and patients do which is one reason they need therapy.1967, Rollo May, Psychology and the Human Dilemma, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 18

Questions about bit the hand that fed one

What is bit the hand that fed one the simple past of?
Bit the hand that fed one is the simple past of bite the hand that feeds one.

Words near bit the hand that fed one in the dictionary

  1. bit the big one
  2. bit the biscuit
  3. bit the bullet
  4. bit the curb
  5. bit the dust
  6. bit the hand that fed one
  7. bit time
  8. bit times
  9. bit-bucket
  10. bit-buckets
  11. bit-compressed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bit the hand that fed one (page history and authors); bite the hand that feeds one (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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