Meaning of poisoned chalice | Babel Free

Definitions

Something which is initially regarded as advantageous but which is later recognized to be disadvantageous or harmful; an apparently beneficial or benign instrument or scheme for causing death or harm.

idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“[W]e but teach / Bloody Inſtructions, which, being taught, returne / To plague th' Inuentor. This euen-handed Iuſtice / Commends th' Ingredience of our poyſon'd Challice / To our owne lips.”

“Let this, Englishmen, be a leſſon to you; throw from you the doctrine of equality, as you would the poiſoned chalice. Wherever this deteſtable principle gains ground to any extent, ruin muſt inevitably enſue.”

“Remember the death of Wilson was fearfully avenged; and those yet live who can compel you to drink the dregs of your poisoned chalice.— [...]”

“You need not, therefore, be surprised to hear of the vigorous blockade of the Chesapeake and Hampton Roads, and of the ports of seceded States, and that if these States erect batteries at Memphis or Vicksburgh to intercept the commerce of the Mississippi, that measures of stern retaliation or resistance will be inaugurated by the Government, to force the poisoned chalice to the lips of those who first drugged it.”

“The great spiritual visions of human history have also been poisoned chalices, the causes of untold misery and even savagery.”

“His [Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's] role last year in persuading Ayatollah [Ruhollah] Khomeini to agree a Gulf War ceasefire – a decision the imam likened "to drinking from a poisoned chalice" – enhanced his reputation for pragmatism.”

“The CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] left the Interim Government with two unresolved crises that were more akin to poisoned chalices.”

“It is why the question of whether Labour should have accepted the support of his [Rupert Murdoch's] media empire as a gift, or spurned it as a poisoned chalice, retains a certain relevance.”

““For them [the populist right], the AfD is becoming a poisoned chalice.””

CEFR level