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cut off one's nose to spite one's face

Idioms  

  1. Injure oneself out of pique. For example, Staying home because Meg was invited first is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Similar hyperboles appeared in several Latin proverbs; in English the expression was first recorded in 1561.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Anyway, no one stays a Radical when he gets to be his own father, as it would be absurd to cut off one's nose to spite one's face—don't you think so, Mamma?

From Project Gutenberg

It was to cut off one's nose to spite one's face.

From Project Gutenberg

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.