kick a dog when it's down
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]kick a dog when it's down (third-person singular simple present kicks a dog when it's down, present participle kicking a dog when it's down, simple past and past participle kicked a dog when it was down)
- (idiomatic) To make things worse for someone in an adverse situation.
- 1891, The Wheel and Cycling Trade Review[1], volume 6:
- but we learned for the first time last Monday night that the Atalantas would kick a dog when he's down. We were beaten ten pins; of course the At-A-lantas (as Spark puts it) will claim one hundred and ten, but the hundred were felled by Miller jumping on the alleys.
- 1919, Jewell Bothwell Tull, “The Phantom Lion of Goodrich Creek”, in South Dakota Educator[2], volume 33:
- I don't like to kick a dog when he's down, and Earns has had a heap of trouble with his father's death and all
Usage notes
[edit]Often appearing in the negative in the form of a proverb like "don't kick a dog when he's down" - i.e. show mercy toward those in poor circumstances.