shoot oneself in the foot

English

Verb

shoot oneself in the foot

1. (idiomatic) To act against one's own interests; to unintentionally behave self-destructively.
   • 1982 April, “Reagan shoots from the lip‎”, Black Enterprise, volume 12, page 16: 

     but as President he frequently shoots himself in the foot. Some of his erroneous public statements are dillies.

   • 2007, Paul Collier, The bottom billion: why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it, page 85:

     The countries that stopped shooting themselves in the foot were able to break into new export markets

   • 2009 August, SPIN‎, volume 25, page 62: 

     "I've always been the guy who shoots himself in the foot and squanders every opportunity," he says. "Now it's like, 'Do I throw it all away — or just try?'"

Translations

to act against one's own interest

• Finnish: sahata omaa oksaansa, kompastua omiin jalkoihinsa
• French: se tirer une balle dans le pied (fr)
• German: sich ins eigene Knie schießen
• Italian: darsi la zappa sui piedi
• Norwegian: skyte seg selv i foten

• Polish: strzelić sobie w stopę
• Russian: стрелять себе в ногу (streljátʹ sebé v nógu), пилить сук, на котором сидишь (pilítʹ suk, na kotórom sidíšʹ)
• Swedish: skjuta sig själv i foten (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} skyte seg selv i foten

• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} tirar piedras al propio tejado
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} skjuta sig själv i foten (sv)

See also

• own goal