Dictionary

bite the hand that feeds one en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To cause harm to a benefactor (especially one that one is dependent on, thus with the idea that this behaviour is self-damaging).
   • For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left train operators to 'take the heat' - which they dutifully did, fearful of speaking up and 'biting the hand that feeds'. 2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3:
   • Granted that it is not "exquisitely rational" to bite the hand that feeds you, yet that is just what clients and patients do which is one reason they need therapy. 1967, Rollo May, Psychology and the Human Dilemma, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 18:
   • "Daddy, don't say that. I don't bite the hand that feeds me. What a horrible expression, 'the hand that feeds you'. How can you say that to me when you used to refuse to feed me, when you punished me by locking me in my room without a scrap of food, so I'd be skinny like Luz and like Mother." 2023 February 23, Mercedes Rosende, The Hand That Feeds You, Bitter Lemon Press, →ISBN:
   • And the reality is, for all the talk about lobbying reform, Congress has never been known to bite the hand that feeds it. 2004 November 15, Jay Newton-Small, “The Dems' Tax (and Spend) Dilemma”, in Time:

Forms

Relateds

don't shit where you eat

Translations (21)

vi ăn cháo đá bát (cause harm to a benefactor) · af die hand byt wat jou voed (cause harm to a benefactor) · cmn 狗咬呂洞賓 /狗咬吕洞宾 (cause harm to a benefactor) · fr mordre la main qui nourrit (cause harm to a benefactor) · vi ăn cơm quốc gia, thờ ma cộng sản (cause harm to a benefactor) · hi जिस थाली में खाना उसी में छेद करना (cause harm to a benefactor) · cmn 忘恩負義 /忘恩负义 (cause harm to a benefactor) · it mordere la mano che ti nutre (cause harm to a benefactor) · de den Ast absägen, auf dem man sitzt (cause harm to a benefactor) · gl morder na man que che dá de comer (cause harm to a benefactor) · gl cuspir para arriba (cause harm to a benefactor) · fi purra ruokkivaa kättä (cause harm to a benefactor) · pl gryźć rękę, która karmi (cause harm to a benefactor) · ur جِس تھالی میں کَھانا اُسی میں چھید کَرْنا (cause harm to a benefactor) · pt cuspir no prato que comeu (cause harm to a benefactor) · de in die Hand beißen, die einen füttert (cause harm to a benefactor) · es morder la mano que te da de comer (cause harm to a benefactor) · ru куса́ть ру́ку, кото́рая ко́рмит (cause harm to a benefactor) · fr cracher dans la soupe (cause harm to a benefactor) · it sputare nel piatto in cui si mangia (cause harm to a benefactor) · fr mordre la main nourricière (cause harm to a benefactor)