At some point in our lives, we all blame or criticize ourselves for something we have done or should have done. In Italian, there is a very appropriate idiomatic expression for expressing this emotion: eat from your hand.
eat your hand Literally means “eating from one's own hands”. reflexive eat be used instead of eat Because action is directed toward oneself.
In English, we use similar but more self-destructive expressions to express regret: kick yourself.
If you don't accept the offer, you'll eat it off your hands!
You'll kick yourself if you don't accept this offer!
A variation of this expression is bite your handwhere the verb bite method biteliterally translated as “bite someone's hand.”
I regret not buying the concert tickets immediately. They are sold out now!
I kicked myself for not buying the concert tickets right away. Now they are sold out!
Did you know…
If you actually eat off your hands—or, more specifically, your nails—you might be suffering from a condition called index fingering. onikefajabehavior eating/biting one's own nails (nail biter).
Heather Broster is a graduate with honors in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, fluent in English and Italian, as well as varying degrees of fluency in Japanese, Welsh and French. Originally from Toronto, Heather has lived in several countries, notably Italy for six years. Her main research areas are language acquisition, education and bilingual teaching.