shoot the messenger
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to punish or blame someone for bringing bad news
Literally: kill the person delivering a message
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
It is a good idea not to shoot the messenger or fire the witness whose evidence may be essential to any renegotiation or complaint to the authorities.’
Criticising Alan for saying how well scum are playing is a bit like shooting the messenger who brings bad news.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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.
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Common questions
What does “shoot the messenger” mean?
to punish or blame someone for bringing bad news Literally: kill the person delivering a message
Is “shoot the messenger” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
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