Bite the hand that feeds you

Meaning
This idiom describes betraying or harming someone who supports or provides for you, as if biting the hand offering food, symbolizing ingratitude or self-destructive behavior. It conveys disloyalty, recklessness, or a failure to appreciate help, often used in personal, professional, or social contexts to critique actions that undermine benefactors. The phrase carries a tone of warning, moral judgment, or irony, reflecting cultural values of loyalty and the human tendency to rebel against dependency. Its visceral imagery, evoking an animalistic act, resonates in situations of misplaced defiance, capturing the folly of attacking one’s source of support. The idiom often serves as a caution against shortsighted betrayal, making it a potent metaphor for the consequences of ingratitude and the fragility of trust.
Origin
The phrase emerged in 18th-century Britain, rooted in the universal imagery of animals biting their owners, a metaphor for ingratitude found in Aesop’s fables, particularly ‘The Dog and the Wolf.’ Its earliest recorded English use appears in Edmund Burke’s 1793 essay *Reflections on the Revolution in France*, warning against ‘biting the hand that feeds.’ The idiom gained traction in 19th-century literature, notably in Charles Dickens’ *Bleak House* (1853), critiquing social ingratitude. By the 20th century, it was widely used in British and American media, as seen in *The Times* editorials on labor disputes. Its spread across English-speaking cultures was driven by its moral clarity and vivid imagery, ensuring its enduring use in contexts from family dynamics to political alliances.
Variants
  • Bite the hand that feeds you
  • Biting the hand that feeds
  • Bite the hand that feeds
  • Bite the hand feeding you
Examples
  • By criticizing her mentor publicly, she was biting the hand that feeds her.
  • Biting the hand that feeds, he sued the company that had supported his career.
  • Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, she warned, urging him to stay loyal to his sponsor.
  • He bit the hand feeding him by leaking secrets to a rival firm.
  • Biting the hand that feeds is never wise, especially when you rely on their funding.