English · Idiom Candidate

shoot oneself in the foot

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To unintentionally harm or cause problems for oneself

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

làm tổn hại hoặc gây ra vấn đề cho bản thân một cách vô ý

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to shoot one's own foot with a gun

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He shot himself in the foot by quitting his job without having another one lined up

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.

Topics: Legs

Common questions

What does “shoot oneself in the foot” mean?

To unintentionally harm or cause problems for oneself Literally: to shoot one's own foot with a gun

Is “shoot oneself in the foot” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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