Word.ws English Dictionary

heap coals of fire on someone's head

heap coals of fire on someone's head verb: to excite remorse in someone by returning good for evil.

Verb

heap coals of fire on someone's head (third-person singular simple present heaps coals of fire on someone's head, present participle heaping coals of fire on someone's head, simple past and past participle heaped coals of fire on someone's head)

  1. (intransitive) To excite remorse in someone by returning good for evil.
    • Therefore if thine enemie hunger, feed him: if he thirst, giue him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heape coales of fire on his head.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 12:20
    • Hardy was irritated for a moment, and then was filled with ruth for the poor wrong-headed youngster who was heaping up coals of fire for his own head.1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], “The Storm Rages”, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 258

Forms of heap coals of fire on someone's head

third-person singular presentheaps coals of fire on someone's head
present participleheaping coals of fire on someone's head
past participleheaped coals of fire on someone's head
pastheaped coals of fire on someone's head
alternative formheap coals of fire upon someone's head

Origin of heap coals of fire on someone's head

An allusion to Romans 12:20 in the Bible.

Questions about heap coals of fire on someone's head

What does heap coals of fire on someone's head mean?
Heap coals of fire on someone's head means to excite remorse in someone by returning good for evil.
What part of speech is heap coals of fire on someone's head?
Heap coals of fire on someone's head is a verb.
What is the past tense of heap coals of fire on someone's head?
The past tense of heap coals of fire on someone's head is heaped coals of fire on someone's head.

Words near heap coals of fire on someone's head in the dictionary

  1. Heanor
  2. Heanor and Loscoe
  3. heans
  4. heap
  5. Heap Bridge
  6. heap coals of fire on someone's head
  7. heap insult on injury
  8. heap on
  9. heap up
  10. heapability
  11. heapable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heap coals of fire on someone's head (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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