Meaning of Idiom ‘Your Own (or one’s own) Worst Enemy’
To be your (or one’s) own worst enemy is to act contrary to one’s own best interests; to consistently cause yourself to fail; to do things that prevent you from being successful or liked; to be more harmful to oneself than other people are. 1,2,3
If you are your own worst enemy, it is your own behavior that causes most of your problems.
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Usage Notes
This idiom is often exaggerated and like most idioms, it should not be taken literally. However, it a good way to point out that a person’s behavior is what is causing most of their problems. It’s sometimes used in an ironic way or humorous way.
The idiom is the title of a 1999 hit song by the American rock band Lit. The song is about waking up in the morning and realizing that you did something foolish the night before. In other words, it is about screwing up and causing your own problems.
Examples Of Use
“In school, I was my own worst enemy. I could have easily made straight A’s by applying myself just a little bit more.”
“People are their own worst enemy when they refuse to wear masks!”
“You keep blaming other people for your problems but the truth is you’re your own worst enemy.”
“He lost the match because he was his own worst enemy. He let easy shots get by him.”
Origin
This idiom has been used in English since at least the mid-1800s but the sentiment behind it has existed for much longer. Being your own worst enemy is the moral of Aesop’s Fable The Trees and the Axe‘ or The Wood and the Clown.
A Woodman came one day into a forest and looked about him as if in search of something. The Trees, with a curiosity natural to some other creatures, asked him what he wanted. He replied, “Only a piece of Wood, to make a handle for my hatchet.”
Since that was all, it was voted unanimously that he should have a piece of good, sound Ash.
He had no sooner received it and fitted it to his ax-head that he began to lay about him and to hack and hew without distinction, felling the noblest trees in all the forest. Then the Oak is said thus to have spoken to the Beech: “Brother, we must take it for our pains.”
The trees’ good nature betrayed them. They were their own worst enemy.
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References
- Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms]. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.
- Spears, Richard A. McGraw-Hill’s American Idioms Dictionary. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2008.
- Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012