bite the hand that feeds one

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

bite the hand that feeds one (third-person singular simple present bites the hand that feeds one, present participle biting the hand that feeds one, simple past bit the hand that fed one, past participle bitten the hand that fed one)

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).
   • 1967, Rollo May, Psychology and the Human Dilemma, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 18:

     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.

   • 2004 November 15, Jay Newton-Small, “The Dems' Tax (and Spend) Dilemma”, in Time:

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

   • 2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3:

     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'.

   • 2023 February 23, Mercedes Rosende, The Hand That Feeds You, Bitter Lemon Press, →ISBN:

     "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."

Translations

cause harm to a benefactor

• Afrikaans: die hand byt wat jou voed
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 狗咬呂洞賓／狗咬吕洞宾 (zh) (gǒu yǎo Lǚ Dòngbīn), 忘恩負義／忘恩负义 (zh) (wàng ēn fù yì)

• Finnish: purra ruokkivaa kättä
• French: cracher dans la soupe (fr) (literally “to spit in the soup”), mordre la main nourricière (fr), mordre la main qui nourrit (fr)
• Galician: morder na man que che dá de comer, cuspir para arriba (literally “to spit upwards”)
• German: in die Hand beißen, die einen füttert, (commoner, but broader in meaning) den Ast absägen, auf dem man sitzt (literally “saw off the branch on which one is sitting”)
• Italian: mordere la mano che ti nutre, sputare nel piatto in cui si mangia (literally “to spit on the plate you eat”)
• Portuguese: cuspir no prato que comeu (literally “spit on the plate you ate”)
• Russian: куса́ть ру́ку, кото́рая ко́рмит (kusátʹ rúku, kotóraja kórmit), руби́ть сук, на кото́ром сиди́шь (rubítʹ suk, na kotórom sidíšʹ, literally “to cut the branch one is sitting on”), плева́ть в коло́дец impf (plevátʹ v kolódec, literally “to spit in a well”)
• Spanish: morder la mano que te da de comer (es)
• Vietnamese: ăn cháo đá bát (vi)

See also

• don't shit where you eat (vulgar)