stick the knife in

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stick the knife in (third-person singular simple present sticks the knife in, present participle sticking the knife in, simple past and past participle stuck the knife in)

1. (idiomatic) To say or do something deliberately and unnecessarily malicious.
   • 2001, Ezra Greenspan, Jonathan Rose, Book History, volume 4, page 307:

     Bengali speaks with courtly floweriness even when sticking the knife in, and Thompson's well-meaning British bluntness was not appreciated.