Skip to main content

Revenge is a dish best served cold

An old, widely used phrase expressing the sentiment that revenge that is delayed, and executed well after the heat of anger has dissipated, is more satisfying than revenge taken as an immediate act of rage.

It has been frequently been claimed on the Internet to have originated in the novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. In truth, however, there are two problems with the widely circulated quotation from that book. The first is that the phrase does not appear in the novel, or anything else that de Lacois wrote. The second problem is that the French quotation used as proof is linguistically erroneous; de Lacois would never have written the words attributed to him. Thus it bears all the hallmarks of an Internet "fact" for which someone invented an authentication that seemed plausible, knowing that it would rarely be verified.

The phrase has been in use since at least the 19th century, and at least one author's use of it back then expressed to the reader that it was an already existing dictum.

Of course, how long ago it came into being in the Klingon Empire would be an interesting subject for xenolinguistic research.
"Kirk, old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb, 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'?"
– Khan Noonien Singh in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"
by AkaSlasher July 18, 2015
mugGet the Revenge is a dish best served cold mug.

Revenge

One of the best Minecraft parodies of all time.
Man i just listened to Revenge by Captain Sparkles for 10 hours straight. Best 10 hours ever.
by Recyclable Man June 24, 2019
mugGet the Revenge mug.

revengeanceful

The mutual feelings between Strong Mad and "The Tire". Will be settled in "Tire Madness" only on pay-per-view.
by Yuri September 22, 2003
mugGet the revengeanceful mug.

revenge-shit

When you take a huge dump and just leave it there just to spite somebody.
Allan: "I just took a major revenge-shit bro. She's cleaning it right now!" *brofist
Sten: "Nice one!" *brofist
by Sandy_Vag October 2, 2014
mugGet the revenge-shit mug.

Custer's Revenge

A shitty 1980's video game made for the Atari. You had to avoid arrows and fuck or really rape a Native American woman... it was really shitty and isn't pron, which it's claimed to be, it more like a woman whos a hot dog made of legos. It was one the most controversial games in it's time and was picked up by the media who made a big hoopla about it. The company went of business in 1983 with during the video game crash.
Damn, I tried to choking my chicken to Custer's Revenge for three hours and nothing came out!
by AutisticPsycho October 19, 2004
mugGet the Custer's Revenge mug.

revenge rate

Is seen (quite often, really) on all sorts of "rating" boards/forums, where you rate the avatar/username/character/whatever above you. Revenge rating is when some dumbass gets all hurt that someone gave them a bad rating, so they go and purposely give them a bad rating back in revenge, even if they don't really think that that person's whatever is bad. It's honestly pretty pathetic.
#1 Person A: I give you a 9/10, nice avatar.

#2 Person B: Sorry, but 4/10. Unorganized and over-cluttered.

#3 Person A: 1/10, your avatar sucks!!

#4 Person B: ... Revenge rate much?
by Clemency October 3, 2008
mugGet the revenge rate mug.

revenge eat

transitive verb
: to eat something or someone purely for the purpose of revenge
Even though Josh ate a full pizza a couple hours ago, he still felt like revenge eating the cat for giving him allergies.
by wless1 July 31, 2009
mugGet the revenge eat mug.

Share this definition

Sign in to vote

We'll email you a link to sign in instantly.

Or

Check your email

We sent a link to

Open your email