lick one's wounds
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to rest and recover after a defeat or setback
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
nghỉ ngơi và phục hồi sau thất bại hoặc thất bại
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: to literally lick one's own wounds
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
After losing the game, the team went home to lick their wounds.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “lick one's wounds” mean?
to rest and recover after a defeat or setback Literally: to literally lick one's own wounds
Is “lick one's wounds” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.