blood on one's hands
22
8.9
- idiom
- Informal
:
tener sangre en las manos
- Your client was found with my daughter's blood on his hands.
- got blood on one's hands
- want blood on your hands
- man with blood on his hands
Examples
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After the tragedy struck, the driver realized there would be blood on his hands due to his reckless behavior.
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If you expect them to be abstinent, then you have blood on your hands.
Blog text (4) -
God only knows the blood on your hands.
-
A man with a great deal of blood on his hands.
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Has the blood on your hands taught you nothing?
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A little blood on your hands for what you consider justice?
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Your president has blood on his hands. Period.
Blog text (11) -
If an agent goes down, you're gonna have blood on your hands.
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You've got blood on your hands.
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General Villanueva might have blood on his hands
Fiction book (1995)
Synonyms
20
8.3
Being responsible for a fault or doing something wrong
A feeling of guilt for causing someone's death
Being responsible for another person's harm or death
Antonyms
How Responsible
- Informal
22
8.9
∞
2.3
1
6.5
∞
2.7
79
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
blood + on + one's + hand
The literal constituents ('blood' + 'on' + 'one's' + 'hands') describe physical blood on someone's hands, which partially supports the idiomatic reading of being responsible for harm — the phrase is a metaphorical extension where 'blood' evokes culpability. This moral-responsibility sense is not fully predictable from the parts for an average B1 learner without exposure, though it is inferable for some speakers and has parallels in other languages, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Blood on one's hands comes from the strong image of a person with real blood on their hands after hurting or killing someone, where the stain shows guilt. That's why today we say someone has blood on their hands to mean they are 'responsible for causing someone's death or serious harm'.