hoist with one's own petard
Trapped by scheme
To be hoist with one's own petard is to be harmed by your own scheme or weapon.
A petard was a small bomb used to blow open gates; being hoist by one meant being blown up by your own explosive.
The phrase now describes any backfiring plan: He tried to frame his rival but was hoist with his own petard when the evidence pointed back to him.
- poetic justiceFitting outcome matching misdeeds
- taste of one's own medicineExperiencing harm you caused
- bombExplosive device or disaster
- backfireYield unintended consequences
- blow up in one's faceAttempt fails catastrophically on initiator
explosive device · self-inflicted wound · Hamlet · nemesis · unintended consequences · hubris · boomerang effect · come back to bite · overreach · downfall · Elizabethan language · karma · folly · shooting oneself in the foot · Pyrrhic victory · own goal · fall on one's sword · miscalculation
hoist with one's own petardstabbed in the back
Treacherously harmed by trusted person
sabotaged · collateral damage · blindsided · ambushed · double-crossed
hoist with one's own petardgot away with it
played one's cards right · mastermind · beat them at their own game · turned the tables · outmaneuvered