reopen old wounds
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To remind someone of a past hurt or trauma
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
nhắc nhở ai đó về một tổn thương hoặc chấn thương trong quá khứ
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: to open again old injuries
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The argument reopened old wounds between them
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 “reopen old wounds” mean?
To remind someone of a past hurt or trauma Literally: to open again old injuries
Is “reopen old wounds” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.