twist the knife (in the wound) Definition

knife
noun knives

1. A cutting instrument, typically in the form of a blade fitted into a handle or into machinery, and sometimes also used for spreading. Also in compounds

Example: steak-knife
Example: butter-knife.
Thesaurus: cutter, scalpel, sickle, scythe, bodkin.
2. Such an instrument used as a weapon.

Thesaurus: blade (slang), sword, bayonet, dagger, stiletto, lance, machete, poniard.

verb knifed, knifing

1. To cut.
2. To stab or kill with a knife.

Thesaurus: stab, cut, lacerate, pierce, slash, impale, spit, lance, thrust through.
3. To try to defeat by treachery.

Derivative: knifing
noun

The act of attacking and injuring someone using a knife.

Idiom: have one's knife in someone (have one's knife into someone)

To bear a grudge against them.

To be persistently hostile or spiteful to them.

Idiom: the knives are out

colloq
The argument has taken a savage turn.

Idiom: twist the knife (in the wound)

To deliberately to increase someone's distress or embarrassment by constant reminders of the circumstances that caused it.

Idiom: under the knife

colloq
Having a surgical operation.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon cnif.

Phrasal Verb: knife into something

To penetrate it.

Phrasal Verb: knife through something

To cut through it as if with a knife.