YouTube / iTunes / Spotify / Radio Public / Pocket Casts / Google Podcasts / Breaker / Overcast
Listen to ArtisanEnglish.jp posts & lesson intros here.
Idiom: Rub salt in a wound
If the title of this post made you cringe, I get it.
You might wonder why anyone would rub salt in a wound.
This phrase creates a clear picture that helps people understand what pain or discomfort feels like.
To rub salt in a wound means making someone feel even worse about something that already hurts.
Imagine you have a cut, and someone rubs salt on it—the pain gets worse.
In daily life, we use this phrase when someone says or does something that makes a bad situation even more painful for someone else.
For example, if your friend lost a soccer game and you keep bringing up their mistakes, you are rubbing salt in a wound.
No one likes it when others do this, especially when they already feel bad.
In the big picture, the United States is turning against all of its allies by breaking agreements and starting an unbelievable trade war.
These actions have left a bad taste in the mouths of all of its allies.
Now, to rub salt in the wound, Trump wants to annex Greenland and perhaps Canada, too.
As a result, European troops will be stationed in Greenland to defend it against a US invasion, and Danish troops have been ordered to fire on the US military if, indeed, an invasion occurs.
Remember, it’s important not to rub salt in a wound.
Try to comfort people when they are upset instead.
Knowing how to use this phrase will help you express feelings and situations more clearly in English.
If we choose our words carefully, we can avoid rubbing salt in a wound and help others feel better.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 75.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.
