“Revenge is a dish best served cold”

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What does this mean?

Metaphors and analogies and such aren’t my strong suit

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AuDHD
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It means it's better to cool down and get your rational head on after someone has hurt you before you act

Revenge is best or most satisfying when delayed.

Either because you can wait until a particularly vulnerable moment to serve it, or because you can do so in a way that holds symbolic value, or simply because you're not lashing out in a blind rage and can control the optics of how you deliver what you consider to be justice.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold."

It means that revenge is more satisfying when one has had time to prepare vengeance that is well-planned, long-feared, or unexpected.

Let's say you lose out on a promotion because your rival spread lies about you and exaggerated his own skills.  You just smile, do as you're told, and stay out of trouble.  No one knows you are plotting revenge.



10 years later, the police arrest your rival in his office.  It seems they received an anonymous tip regarding your rival's illegal business dealings, along with enough evidence to press charges.  His arrest leads to the termination of his employment.  You respond to all of this with shock and dismay.



These events also require that you be promoted to his (now former) position.  You then proceed to quietly remove his name from every on-line file relating to successful projects.  Eventually, all the record show only that he once worked there, but did very little to justify his employment.



THAT, young padawan, is an example of "Cold Revenge".

Thank ya’ll

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AuDHD
Neurofibromatosis Type II (NF2)

He/him they/them
~~~~~~~~~~

Feel free to send me a PM!

I think you have to be emotionally cold to plan and get revenge. If you're too nice you may think it's wrong to get revenge on someone, even if they did something really awful. Like that other saying, "two wrongs don't make a right".

Anyway, it's an "interesting" pun for Mr. Freeze to use, along with all the other puns about coldness and ice and stuff.

There's a similar phrase, "Don't get mad, get even," which I think is more benign. It's less warlike without becoming too goody-goody.

Dont do it in the hot blood of the moment.

Do your revenge in the cold blood of the long term via "cold" calculation. It will work out better. Thats what theyre saying.

And its probably usually true. Israel shoulda thought things through a little more instead of falling into HAMAS's trap by obliterating Gaza (and making more recruits for HAMAS).

Two wrongs don't make a right, but three rights make a left.

Act in haste Repent at leisure

Context may matter here.

That exact wording is used in the film “Star Trek Ii: The Wrath of Khan” where it is spoken by Ricardo Montalbán as “Khan Noonien Singh”. The character, the titular “Khan” says it is an old Klingon proverb.

The meaning in that is more or less “Captian Kirk, I want you to know that I am now, at long last, taking my revenge on you, and I will enjoy it like a good meal, but I will enjoy it more having told you so.” The tone intended is one of deadly seriousness.

In “Big Bang Theory” (the tv show), the phrase is used with the added meaning “I want you to know that I am now, at long last, taking my revenge on you, and I will enjoy it like a good meal, but I will enjoy it more having told you so. And I am such a nerd that even in something like revenge I think in terms of old Science Fiction movies. And I know you know exactly what I am talking about because you are that kind of nerd too.” This is played for humor.

Frankly I can not hear it without thinking of it as a goofy Star Trek quote.

It is also used in the film “Kill Bill” where it is also described as a Klingon proverb. (Probably a reference to the other film).

A similar phrase is used in the film The Godfather (with slightly different words).

OED attributes it to the 1846 translation of the 1845 French novel Mathilde by Joseph Marie Eugène Sue (but with slightly different wording) "la vengeance se mange très bien froide", translated "revenge is very good eaten cold".

Wikipedia says: “It has been wrongly credited to the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782)” [Among other things]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge

( look at the “Proverb” subheading )

↑ I confirm . . .

The origin of the expression, "revenge is a dish best served cold," comes from French author Eugène Sue and his novel, "Memoirs of Matilda.  "The English translation of the work by D. G. Osbourne, published in 1846, has the phrase appear as follows.

"And then revenge is very good eaten cold, as the vulgar say."

The phrase went through several changes over the centuries before landing on its modern version in the 1980s.  There are several uses of the expression in cinema, and the progression of the saying goes as follows.

The Godfather (1972) Don Corleone said, "Revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold."

Star Trek II, The Wrath of Kahn (1982) is the first use of the modern phrase, "Kirk, old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb, "Revenge is a dish best served cold?"


Read the complete and unedited article  HERE .