Hoist with his own petard

Uncommon card · No. 91919

"Hoist with his own petard" is a phrase from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet that has entered proverbial use in English. Literally, the phrase means a bomb-maker was blown off the ground (hoist) by his own bomb (petard). It commonly refers to an ironic reversal in which one is taken down by one's own scheme. In modern vernacular usage of the idiom, the preposition "with" is commonly exchanged for a different preposition, particularly "by" (i.e. "hoist by his own petard") or "on", the implication being that the bomb has rolled back and the unfortunate bomb-maker has trodden on it by accident. The former form is recognized by many British and American English dictionaries as an interchangeable alternative. Prepositions other than "by" and the original "with" are not widely accepted and may be seen as erroneous or even nonsensical in the correct context of the phrase.

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