bite the hand that feeds one

present singular third person bites the hand that feeds one · participle present biting the hand that feeds one · past bit the hand that fed one · participle past bitten the hand that fed one

1. idiomaticTo cause harm to a benefactor (especially one that one is dependent on, thus with the idea that this behaviour is self-damaging).

   And the reality is, for all the talk about lobbying reform, Congress has never been known to bite the hand that feeds it.

   2004 November 15, Jay Newton-Small, “The Dems' Tax (and Spend) Dilemma”, in Time

   3 more examples

   Granted that it is not "exquisitely rational" to bite the hand that feeds you, yet that is just what clients and patients do which is one reason they need therapy.

   1967, Rollo May, Psychology and the Human Dilemma, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 18

   For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left train operators to 'take the heat' - which they dutifully did, fearful of speaking up and 'biting the hand that feeds'.

   2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3

   "Daddy, don't say that. I don't bite the hand that feeds me. What a horrible expression, 'the hand that feeds you'. How can you say that to me when you used to refuse to feed me, when you punished me by locking me in my room without a scrap of food, so I'd be skinny like Luz and like Mother."

   2023 February 23, Mercedes Rosende, The Hand That Feeds You, Bitter Lemon Press, →ISBN