hoist by one's own petard
Trap snares its setter
To be hoist by one's own petard is to be harmed by a scheme you intended for someone else—caught in your own trap.
A petard was a small explosive device used to breach gates; being hoisted meant being blown up by your own bomb.
The phrase now applies to any backfiring plan: The smear campaign hoist him by his own petard when voters turned against his tactics.
- backfireYield unintended consequences
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- HamletDanish prince's revenge tragedy
- classic literatureEnduring fictional works
- poetic justiceFitting outcome matching misdeeds
blow up in your face · taste of one's own medicine · grenade · unintended consequences · miscalculation · explosive device · idiom · figure of speech · bomb · boomerang effect · metaphorical language · self-sabotage · own goal · cutting off one's nose to spite one's face · Elizabethan language · irony · fuse · detonation
hoist by one's own petardblindsided
Surprised by unforeseen impact
collateral damage · caught in the crossfire · stabbed in the back · ambushed · innocent bystander
hoist by one's own petardget away with it
have the last laugh · got away with it · outfox · outsmart · pull it off
hoist by one's own petardno good deed goes unpunished
Benevolence often brings misfortune
hoist, hoists, hoisted, hoisting, owned, owner, owners, petard, petards