reopen old wounds

Definitions

1. 1

   To cause the memory of past trauma to be recalled, resulting in renewed suffering.

   • Please, believe me—the last thing I want to do is reopen old wounds needlessly, but . . . but if it would finally bring a resolution to the whole mystery—"
   • We return to the countries that had once hurt and destroyed us in many irreparable ways and from which we once ran for dear life, in order to get hurt again and have our old wounds reopened.
2. 2

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see reopen, old, wound.

   • Old wounds and ulcers reopen and ulcerate.

The neighborhood