Meaning of bite the hand that feeds one | Babel Free

Definitions

To cause harm to a benefactor (especially one that one is dependent on, thus with the idea that this behaviour is self-damaging).

idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“And the reality is, for all the talk about lobbying reform, Congress has never been known to bite the hand that feeds it.”

“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'.”

“"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."”

CEFR level