shoot oneself in the foot
shoot oneself in the foot verb: to act against one's own interests; to unintentionally behave self-destructively.
Verb
shoot oneself in the foot (third-person singular simple present shoots oneself in the foot, present participle shooting oneself in the foot, simple past and past participle shot oneself in the foot)
- To act against one's own interests; to unintentionally behave self-destructively.
- but as President he frequently shoots himself in the foot. Some of his erroneous public statements are dillies.1982 April, “Reagan shoots from the lip”, in Black Enterprise, volume 12, number 9, page 16
- The countries that stopped shooting themselves in the foot were able to break into new export markets2007, Paul Collier, The bottom billion: why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it, page 85
- Synonyms:
- dig one's own grave, foul one's own nest
shoot oneself in the foot meaning in Tamil and Tagalog
shoot oneself in the foot in Tamil
- தன்னலத்திற்குப் பாதகமாகச் செயல்படுதல்
shoot oneself in the foot in Tagalog
- to act against one's own interest
- gisahin sa sariling mantika
Synonyms of shoot oneself in the foot
Forms of shoot oneself in the foot
| third-person singular present | shoots oneself in the foot |
|---|---|
| present participle | shooting oneself in the foot |
| past participle | shot oneself in the foot |
| past | shot oneself in the foot |
Questions about shoot oneself in the foot
- What does shoot oneself in the foot mean?
- Shoot oneself in the foot means to act against one's own interests; to unintentionally behave self-destructively.
- What is shoot oneself in the foot in Tamil?
- Shoot oneself in the foot in Tamil is தன்னலத்திற்குப் பாதகமாகச் செயல்படுதல். See Shoot oneself in the foot meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is shoot oneself in the foot?
- Shoot oneself in the foot is a verb.
- What is the past tense of shoot oneself in the foot?
- The past tense of shoot oneself in the foot is shot oneself in the foot.
Words near shoot oneself in the foot in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shoot oneself in the foot (page history and authors); shoot oneself in the foot (Tamil Wiktionary) (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-shoot oneself in the foot.ogg.
Cite this entry: “shoot oneself in the foot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shoot_oneself_in_the_foot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.