Word.ws English Dictionary

twist the knife

twist the knife verb: to deliberately do or say something to worsen a difficult situation or increase a person's distress, irritation, or anger.

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

Synonyms of twist the knife

Forms of twist the knife

third-person singular presenttwists the knife
present participletwisting the knife
past participletwisted the knife
pasttwisted the knife
alternative formturn the knife
alternative formtwist the knife in the wound
alternative formturn the knife in the wound

Origin of twist the knife

Derived from the fact that the act of literally twisting a knife that is still inside someone who has just been stabbed will widen the wound and make it even more painful.

Words formed from twist the knife

Questions about twist the knife

What does twist the knife mean?
Twist the knife means to deliberately do or say something to worsen a difficult situation or increase a person's distress, irritation, or anger.
What part of speech is twist the knife?
Twist the knife is a verb.
What is the past tense of twist the knife?
The past tense of twist the knife is twisted the knife.

Words near twist the knife in the dictionary

  1. twist someone's arm
  2. twist someone's balls
  3. twist someone's words
  4. twist splice
  5. twist splices
  6. twist the knife
  7. twist the knife in the wound
  8. twist tie
  9. twist ties
  10. twist up
  11. twist-boat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-twist the knife.wav.

Cite this entry: “twist the knife.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/twist_the_knife. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.