Learn English – Idiom Many go out for wool and come home shorn

idiomsproverbs

We've got a saying in Spain:

ir por lana, volver trasquilado

I've found that in English already exists a similar proverb:

Many go out for wool and come home shorn

whose meaning is also similar

many who seek to better themselves or make themselves rich, end by
losing what they already have.

But I'm not certain that the two of them share the following nuance. In Spanish it's applied also to

Alude a quien fue a ofender y volvió ofendido

Let me adapt and translate

The one who try to offend you, ends offending himself.

Offend, meaning in this case, that someone tries to demonstrate that you are wrong or that you are stupid but at the end he stands corrected or definitively showing that he is the stupid one.

Another saying in Spanish that reflects this meaning is

Le salió el tiro por la culata / His gun backfired

Is correct the use of Many go out for wool and come home shorn in this case?
Are there any other idioms for this case?

Best Answer

One idiom in the same vain as your two expressions that I can think of at the moment would be the joke is on somebody:

If you say that the joke is on a particular person, you mean that that person has tried to make someone else look silly but has made himself or herself look silly instead.

Moreover, it's also a common expression. What I mean by that is that it's not only found in dictionaries. You will actually hear somebody use it at some point if you listen to native English speakers speak long enough.

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