Learn English – Idiom for making others feel bad to make theself feel good

idiom-request

Are there a stable expression for a situation when Person A blames B and tells how B is bad in order to make himself (A) feel good?

I would say something like "feed ego at cost of others", but I google it and it looks like "feed ego" has rather positive meaning in English and means "making feel good by doing good work or receiving a compliment".

Best Answer

I don't know of a word or phrase that captures everything you are describing. I think to make himself feel good sounds fine. So I recommend a few ways to change the first part of your sentence. I provide this simplified model:

Person A ____ Person B to make himself feel good.

Aside from the other good answers, I think bully (mentioned in the comments) and ridicule are also possible.

  • bully
    transitive verb
    1 : to treat (someone) in a cruel, insulting, threatening, or aggressive fashion : to act like a bully toward • bullied her younger brother)
    (M-W)
  • ridicule
    : to laugh at and make jokes about (someone or something) in a cruel or harsh way : to make fun of (someone or something)
    (M-W)

The context should imply that B would feel bad.

Crudely, you can say crap on (mildly offensive) or shit on (offensive):

shit on somebody
— phrasal verb with shit uk ​ /ʃɪt/ us ​ /ʃɪt/ verb present participle shitting, past tense and past participle shit, shat or shitted offensive
to treat someone very badly and unkindly:
He made his money by shitting on other people.
(Cambridge Dictionary)

Lastly, you don't need it, but I think it's idiomatic to include just in the sentence. It stresses the idea that Person A only does that to make himself feel good. It makes A look really bad.

Person A ____ Person B just to make himself feel good.

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