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

Idiom: twist the knife

Meaning

Example sentences

Synonyms

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