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Glite Dictionary
to rub salt in the wound

to rub salt in the wound

1 6.6
To make someone's bad feelings worse by reminding them of a disappointment
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : echar sal en la herida
  • Part of me wants to be there to rub salt in the wound when he finds out that Obamacare doesn't cover what his wife needs.

And just like rubbing salt in the wound, AXI got got hacked.

Examples

  • No need to rub salt in the wound of the faithful.

    Blog text (27)

  • I don't want to rub salt in the wound, but Joe was...

    Joe Cocker: Mad Dog with Soul (2017)

  • Mr. Marshall, I get you don't want to help us, but let's not rub salt in the wound.

    Courting Mom and Dad (2021)

  • Not only does he have to decline one last speaking engagement for the party that made him the keynoter, but now he has to rub salt in the wound.

    Blog text (34)

  • Chris rubs salt in the wound by taking the apparent "high road," with all the talk about how we agree on so much, why can't we get along, etc.

    Blog text (28)

  • Guillermo Antonio Guevara Lacayo, a rightist member of the National Assembly, said that activists needed to stop "rubbing salt in the wound."

    Academic text (2003)

  • After losing the match, it felt cruel to rub salt in the wound by reminding him of his mistakes.

  • She didn't mean to rub salt in the wound, but her comments about my project failure only made me feel worse.

  • His decision to bring up the bankruptcy in front of everyone was just rubbing salt in the wound.

Synonyms

to rub it in
vsto rub salt in the wound
  • Informal
34 7.2

Make someone feel worse by reminding them of a mistake or failure

does this by reminding of disappointment to worsen emotions
to add insult to injury
vsto rub salt in the wound
  • Informal
12 4.5

To make a bad situation worse by saying or doing something that hurts someone more

does the same but focuses on reminders that deepen personal hurt
to add fuel to the fire
vsto rub salt in the wound
  • Informal
7 5.9

To make a bad situation worse by saying or doing something that makes people angrier

leans toward personal emotional harm by stressing disappointment again
to stick the knife in
vsto rub salt in the wound
  • Informal
1 9.4

Say or do something on purpose to hurt someone who is already in trouble

is more about worsening feelings by reminding of failure than betrayal
to cast in someone's teeth
vsto rub salt in the wound
  • Informal
9.9

To hurt someone by reminding them of an embarrassing thing they did

targets personal disappointment reminders rather than general reproach
to reinjure
vsto rub salt in the wound
6.5

To hurt someone's feelings again by bringing up a past painful event

focuses on worsening current disappointment by reminding rather than repeating harm
to pour fuel on the fire
vsto rub salt in the wound
  • Informal
7.3

To make a bad situation worse by saying or doing something

is more personal, aiming to worsen feelings through reminder of loss
to acerbate
vsto rub salt in the wound
9.9

To make someone feel more bitter and angry about something

is specifically about worsening present disappointment by reminding of failure
to envenom
vsto rub salt in the wound
9.9

To make a person or group feel bitter and angry

focuses on intensifying current hurt by dwelling on the setback

Antonyms

to comfort
172 1.0

To make someone feel less upset or in pain

to console
40 3.9

To comfort someone who feels sad or disappointed

Surface Forms

rub salt in the wound infinitive
rubbed salt in the wound past
rubbed salt in the wound past participle
rubbing salt in the wound present participle
rubs salt in the wound third person singular

Morphology

rub + salt + in + the + wound

The phrase evokes the literal image of rubbing salt into a physical wound, which clearly maps onto the idea of intensifying someone’s pain or distress; a B1 learner who knows 'rub', 'salt' and 'wound' can readily infer the metaphorical sense of making emotional hurt worse. This image is also common cross-linguistically, so the compositional logic is transparent rather than arbitrarily idiomatic.

Etymology

The idiom rub salt in the wound comes from the image of someone rubbing salt into a wound. Salt on a sore stings and makes the pain worse, so the phrase means 'to make someone feel even worse' or 'to make a bad situation worse'.