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Glite Dictionary
🧂 Biblical woman 🧂 Regretful person
Lot's wife

Lot's wife

9.9
A person who keeps looking back at the past instead of moving on
  • noun
  • Literature
translation icon : una mujer que mira atrás
  • In times of change, we shouldn't be Lot's wife; looking back only hinders our progress.

Examples

  • The fate of immigrants who continued to look to the past would be that of Lot's wife, according to Wilson.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Lot's wife looked back because she missed her stuff.

    House of D (2004)

  • He became like Lot's wife, forever regretting the choices he made in the past.

  • She was warned not to dwell on her failures, but like Lot's wife, she couldn't help but look back.

Surface Forms

Lot's wife singular
Lot's wives plural

Morphology

Lot's + wife

This is a culture-specific Biblical allusion: the meaning (someone who looks back with regret) depends on knowing the story of Lot's wife rather than on the literal parts. Knowing the constituents 'Lot's' (a proper name) and 'wife' (a married woman) gives no predictable cue to the idiomatic sense, so learners must have prior cultural exposure.

Etymology

Lot's wife is used to describe someone who keeps looking back with regret. The image comes from the Bible: Lot's was told to move on, but his wife looked back at Sodom and became a pillar of salt, so calling someone a Lot's wife says they 'cannot let go' of the past.