kick a dog when it's down

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kick a dog when it's down (third-person singular simple present kicks a dog when it's down, present participle kicking a dog when it's down, simple past and past participle kicked a dog when it was down)

1. (idiomatic) To make things worse for someone in an adverse situation.
   • 1891, The Wheel and Cycling Trade Review‎, volume 6:

     but we learned for the first time last Monday night that the Atalantas would kick a dog when he's down. We were beaten ten pins; of course the At-A-lantas (as Spark puts it) will claim one hundred and ten, but the hundred were felled by Miller jumping on the alleys.

   • 1919, Jewell Bothwell Tull, “The Phantom Lion of Goodrich Creek”, in South Dakota Educator‎, volume 33:

     I don't like to kick a dog when he's down, and Earns has had a heap of trouble with his father's death and all

Often appearing in the negative in the form of a proverb like "don't kick a dog when he's down" - i.e. show mercy toward those in poor circumstances.

• kick someone when they are down
  • See also Thesaurus:make matters worse