Word.ws English Dictionary

turn the knife

turn the knife is the alternative form of twist the knife.

Meaning of twist the knife

Verb

twist the knife (third-person singular simple present twists the knife, present participle twisting the knife, simple past and past participle twisted the knife)

  1. (figuratively, informal) To deliberately do or say something to worsen a difficult situation or increase a person's distress, irritation, or anger.
    • "And I'm not seeing anyone," she added, just to twist the knife — in whom, she wasn't sure.2009, Lucy Dillon, Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts, Berkley, published 2011, →ISBN, page 198

Forms of turn the knife

third-person singular presentturns the knife
present participleturning the knife
past participleturned the knife
pastturned the knife

Questions about turn the knife

What is turn the knife the alternative form of?
Turn the knife is the alternative form of twist the knife.

Words near turn the knife in the dictionary

  1. turn the clocks back
  2. turn the cold shoulder on someone
  3. turn the corner
  4. turn the dial
  5. turn the frown upside down
  6. turn the knife
  7. turn the knife in the wound
  8. turn the other cheek
  9. turn the other way
  10. turn the page
  11. turn the scale

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn the knife (page history and authors); twist the knife (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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Cite this entry: “turn the knife.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turn_the_knife. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.