cut off one's nose to spite one's face
cut off one's nose to spite one's face verb: to harm oneself as a result of attempting to harm an adversary.
Verb
cut off one's nose to spite one's face (third-person singular simple present cuts off one's nose to spite one's face, present participle cutting off one's nose to spite one's face, simple past and past participle cut off one's nose to spite one's face)
- To harm oneself as a result of attempting to harm an adversary.
- The public disgrace of his arrival - which I sometimes wonder he could manage to survive - rankled in his bones; he was in that humour when a man - in the words of the old adage - will cut off his nose to spite his face; and he must make himself a public spectacle in the hopes that some of the...1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Master of Ballantrae
cut off one's nose to spite one's face meaning in Arabic and Vietnamese
cut off one's nose to spite one's face in Arabic
- to harm oneself as a result of attempting to harm an adversary
- مَنْ حَفَرَ حُفْرَةً لِأَخِيهِ وَقَعَ فِيهَا man ḥafara ḥufratan liʔaḵīhi waqaʕa fīhā
cut off one's nose to spite one's face in Vietnamese
- to harm oneself as a result of attempting to harm an adversary
- gậy ông đập lưng ông
Forms of cut off one's nose to spite one's face
| third-person singular present | cuts off one's nose to spite one's face |
|---|---|
| present participle | cutting off one's nose to spite one's face |
| past participle | cut off one's nose to spite one's face |
| past | cut off one's nose to spite one's face |
| alternative form | bite off one's nose to spite one's face |
| alternative form | cut off one's face to spite one's nose |
Questions about cut off one's nose to spite one's face
- What does cut off one's nose to spite one's face mean?
- Cut off one's nose to spite one's face means to harm oneself as a result of attempting to harm an adversary.
- What is cut off one's nose to spite one's face in Arabic?
- Cut off one's nose to spite one's face in Arabic is مَنْ حَفَرَ حُفْرَةً لِأَخِيهِ وَقَعَ فِيهَا (man ḥafara ḥufratan liʔaḵīhi waqaʕa fīhā). See Cut off one's nose to spite one's face meaning in Arabic.
- What part of speech is cut off one's nose to spite one's face?
- Cut off one's nose to spite one's face is a verb.
- What is the past tense of cut off one's nose to spite one's face?
- The past tense of cut off one's nose to spite one's face is cut off one's nose to spite one's face.
Words near cut off one's nose to spite one's face in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cut off one's nose to spite one's face (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-cut off one's nose to spite one's face.ogg.
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