glutton for punishment

Idioms  

1. Someone who habitually takes on burdensome or unpleasant tasks or unreasonable amounts of work. For example, Rose agreed to organize the church fair for the third year in a row—she's a glutton for punishment. This expression originated as a glutton for work in the late 1800s, punishment being substituted about a century later.

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Example Sentences

“Full Phil” took about an hour to reveal its point — that parenthood makes you a glutton for punishment — and the jokes are more gestures at where a joke should be.

From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026

Six is a perfect number, and seven is a prime number, but only a glutton for punishment would put them together in front of a bunch of 13-year-olds.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 14, 2025

If you’re an author who happens to be a glutton for punishment or, worse, an insomniac — or, disaster scenario: both — you might be familiar with a certain masochistic feedback loop.

From New York Times • Aug. 24, 2023

Today in Theresa May: Ever a glutton for punishment, May might still bring her little-loved withdrawal agreement back for a fourth vote later this week, perhaps against whichever idea got the most support today.

From Slate • Apr. 1, 2019

People thought he was a glutton for punishment, that he liked getting dumped.

From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green