twist/turn the knife (in the wound)
to make someone who is annoyed, worried, or upset feel even worse:
Just to turn the knife a little, he told me he'd seen my old girlfriend with her new man.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Making people sad, shocked and upset
- aback
- amiss
- appal
- be laughing on the other side of your face idiom
- bite
- burn
- haunt
- hit/touch a (raw) nerve idiom
- horrify
- hurt sb's feelings idiom
- hurtful
- laugh
- mess
- nose
- shake
- take sb aback
- tear sb apart
- tear sb's heart out idiom
- torture
- traumatize
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