Definify.com
Definition 2024
shoot_oneself_in_the_foot
shoot oneself in the foot
English
Verb
- (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?'"
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Translations
to act against one's own interest
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