proverb · Words worth keeping
Cut off one's nose to spite one's face.
Cut off one's nose to spite one's face.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying pictures someone damaging their own face to spite it. It describes retaliation that harms the person pursuing it.
What the words are saying
The nose belongs to the same face targeted by the action, making self-defeat visible. A useful application can ask whether an angry response undermines one’s own aim. The image is figurative and does not establish that every refusal or costly boundary is foolish.
Everyday example
Someone considers whether cancelling useful cooperation solely to punish another person would also damage their own project.
When to use it
Use it to examine self-defeating retaliation and its actual consequences.
What it does not mean
It is not a literal instruction or a reason to dismiss legitimate boundaries.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided proverb reference
Supplied reference A; unit 127; PDF page 22
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.