Meaning of reopen old wounds | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To cause the memory of past trauma to be recalled, resulting in renewed suffering.
   idiomatic
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see reopen, old, wound.

Equivalents

Examples

“When I had completed The Difficult Flowering of Surinam in 1976, Fred Ormskirk, the late NPS historian and radio commentator, suggested I delete a number of the more unpleasant stories in the book, claiming that it was better to let go of the past and not reopen old wounds.”

“Please, believe me—the last thing I want to do is reopen old wounds needlessly, but . . . but if it would finally bring a resolution to the whole mystery—"”

“We return to the countries that had once hurt and destroyed us in many irreparable ways and from which we once ran for dear life, in order to get hurt again and have our old wounds reopened.”

“Sometimes the treatments involved in healing the nation (such as appointing commissions of inquiry) reopen old wounds, therefore measures should be in place to cleanse those sores or stop them from festering.”

“Old wounds and ulcers reopen and ulcerate.”

CEFR level