Idiom: twist the knife
Meaning
Idiom: twist the knife (in the wound)
- to make a situation worse for someone who's already having problems or difficulties
- to make someone more annoyed, angry or upset
Note: When you stab someone with a knife it makes an opening or wound. If you then twist or turn the knife it will make the wound larger and cause greater damage and greater suffering.
Example sentences
— It was one thing to fire me, but to do it in front of everyone really twisted the knife.
— Please don’t say anything else—you can see she feels terrible about what she did so there’s no need to twist the knife.
— My ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend gave her a kiss when he saw me just to twist the knife in the wound.
— My sister is so jealous that I'm pretty but I get bad acne sometimes and she always tries to twist the knife when I get a new pimple.
— Did you really have to twist the knife by bragging that you got 98% correct when you knew Allen failed the test?
— Don't have mercy when the score is 6-0, 5-0. Just twist the knife in the wound and finish the tennis match 6-0, 6-0.
— I don't want to twist the knife but not only is your ex-husband not thinking about you, he's also flirting with another woman at this party.
— Don't you think boasting about getting into Yale is twisting the knife when everyone else was rejected?
— It's bad enough I forgot to thank our main sponsor but my boss keeps twisting the knife talking about it all the time.
— My parents took my phone away because of poor grades and my friends are twisting the knife by sending each other texts and laughing in front of me.
Synonyms
- turn the knife
- add fuel to the fire
- make matters worse
- make things worse
- add insult to injury
- rub salt in the wound
- hit a raw nerve
- touch a raw nerve
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