Learn English – Word or expression for an opinionated and easily offended person

expressionspejorative-languagesingle-word-requeststerminology

Is there a word or expression for someone who uses a lot of opinions to judge himself and/or things around him (such as other people) (e.g. to "defend" himself from receiving judgement), however who is easily offended by someone else based on trivial things they say?

Best Answer

I don't have a single word, but an informal American expression would be

someone who can dish it out but can’t take it - someone easily criticizes other people but does not like it when other people criticize him or her

To dish out originates with the sense of serving food to people, but has taken on an idiomatic meaning of meting out severe punishment or criticism. According to Etymonline, this sense of dish dates from 1934. Taking criticism, punishment, or abuse is from the sense of take as receiving or accepting, from which the idiom taking heat also derives.

While this quality is a characteristic of narcissists, in lay usage narcissism refers mainly to self-absorption or vanity, rather than being simultaneously hypercritical and thin-skinned.