cut someone's throat
Idioms-
Be the means of someone's ruin, as in Joe would cut her throat if she got in his way . One can also cut one's own throat , that is, spoil one's own chances, as in Alice cut her own throat by her repeated absences . This hyperbolic term alludes to actual murder (or suicide). [c. 1500]
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cut one another's throats . Engage in destructive competition. For example, With their price war the two stores were cutting each other's throats . This usage gave rise, by 1880, to the idiom cutthroat competition , for vicious competitive practices.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
