English Idioms: Shoot Yourself In The Foot (With Examples)

Hey guys, it’s Shane from English Understood here.

I shouldn’t do that. I just shoot myself in the foot. I shouldn’t do that. I just shoot myself in the foot. Huh!?

What does that mean? Shoot myself in the foot. ‘Shoot’ means to fire a gun, right? Pow pow pow! And ‘foot’ is at the end of your leg, right? But I don’t see a gun. I didn’t shoot anything.

Shoot yourself in the foot means to make a situation worse for yourself. You spoil the situation for yourself. So in the intro, I said that I shouldn’t do that, I just shoot myself in the foot. Does this mean I am making the situation better or worse? It means I’m making the situation much worse.

Another example could be if you don’t take his offer, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. If you don’t take his offer, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. So if he doesn’t take the offer, is his situation getting better or worse? It is getting worse. It will get worse.

So try this idiom with your friends and if they don’t know it, you can teach them.