hoisted with one's own petard
Backfired trap maker
To be hoisted with one's own petard is to be harmed or defeated by one's own scheme or weapon.
A petard was a small bomb used to blast open gates and walls; if it detonated prematurely, the engineer who set it could be blown into the air—hoisted—by his own device.
The phrase now applies to any situation where someone's plan backfires spectacularly.
The senator who championed the ethics investigation was hoisted with his own petard when his own misconduct came to light.
- backfireYield unintended consequences
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- poetic justiceFitting outcome matching misdeeds
- just desertsMerited reward or punishment
- bombExplosive device or disaster
blow up in your face · Hamlet · karma · what goes around · boomerang effect · come back to bite · self-sabotage · explosive device · idiom · repercussions · Elizabethan language · irony · metaphor · payback · shooting oneself in the foot · unintended consequences · nemesis · gunpowder
hoisted with one's own petardstabbed in the back
Treacherously harmed by trusted person
victimized · wronged · betrayed · ambushed · blindsided
hoisted with one's own petardgot away with it
mastermind · outsmarted · checkmate · beat them at their own game
hoisted with one's own petardinnocent bystander
Uninvolved person harmed incidentally
no good deed goes unpunished · bad luck · misfortune · act of God