lick one's wounds

Idioms  

1. Recuperate from injuries or hurt feelings. For example, They were badly beaten in the debate and went home sadly to lick their wounds. This expression alludes to an animal's behavior when wounded. It was originally put as lick oneself clean or whole, dating from the mid-1500s.

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Example Sentences

There’s no need to censure the desire to forge kinship, to lick one’s wounds, to seek respite or joy.

From Los Angeles Times

“Part of the advantage of being a developer who puts forth proposals like these is that it’s possible to suffer multiple defeats, lick one’s wounds, replenish one’s war chest, and return to fight again in a cycle that can continue pretty much indefinitely,” Fedarko observes.

From Washington Post

But with a thousand islands scattered along their country’s jade-green Adriatic coast, from deserted flyspecks to hipster outposts, there’s no shortage of places to lick one’s wounds—or bask in silver-medal glory.

From The Wall Street Journal

Be prepared to resign or otherwise walk off the job after careful calculation of the pros and cons of helping the country vs. going home to lick one’s wounds.

From Washington Post

During a speech to U.S. bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, he acknowledged a “battle between light and darkness being fought in the world,” but warned against the “temptation to give in to fear, to lick one’s wounds, to think back on bygone times and to devise harsh responses to fierce opposition.”

From The Wall Street Journal