Word.ws English Dictionary

twisting the knife

twisting the knife is the present participle and gerund 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

Questions about twisting the knife

What is twisting the knife the present participle and gerund of?
Twisting the knife is the present participle and gerund of twist the knife.

Words near twisting the knife in the dictionary

  1. twisting balloon
  2. twisting balloons
  3. twisting in the wind
  4. twisting someone's arm
  5. twisting someone's words
  6. twisting the knife
  7. twisting the knife in the wound
  8. twisting up
  9. twistingly
  10. twistings
  11. twistle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: twisting 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: “twisting the knife.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/twisting_the_knife. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.