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Definition 2024


shoot_oneself_in_the_foot

shoot oneself in the foot

English

Verb

shoot oneself in the foot

  1. (idiomatic) To act against one's own interests; to unintentionally behave self-destructively.
    • 1982 April, “Reagan shoots from the lip‎”, in Black Enterprise, volume 12, page 16:
      but as President he frequently shoots himself in the foot. Some of his erroneous public statements are dillies.
    • 2007, Paul Collier, The bottom billion: why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it, page 85:
      The countries that stopped shooting themselves in the foot were able to break into new export markets
    • 2009 August, SPIN‎, volume 25, page 62:
      "I've always been the guy who shoots himself in the foot and squanders every opportunity," he says. "Now it's like, 'Do I throw it all away — or just try?'"

Translations

See also