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巻き添えを食う (まきぞえをくう) Japanese meaning | Kotomora
Meanings 1
expression, godan verb (-u)
get caught up in ; be dragged into ; suffer collateral damage
Used when someone becomes involved in trouble, a dispute, or an accident through no fault of their own, often as a bystander or secondary party. The image is of being pulled into something like a 'side-sweep'.
交こう 通つう 事じ 故こ の 巻ま き 添ぞ え を 食く っ て 、 無む 関かん 係けい な 歩ほ 行こう 者しゃ が けが を し た 。
An innocent pedestrian was injured after getting caught up in the traffic accident.
Written forms 巻ま き 添ぞ えを 食く う
Standard kanji-kana mixed spelling for this idiomatic expression.
まきぞえを 食く う
Kana spelling is common in casual writing or when the kanji 添 is not at hand.
Kanji 添 annexed, accompany, marry Similar words 巻ま き 込こ む 巻き込む is a transitive verb meaning 'to involve someone' or 'to drag someone in', while 巻き添えを食う is an intransitive expression focusing on the experience of the person who gets involved unwillingly.
とばっちりを 受う ける とばっちりを受ける also means to suffer collateral damage or be affected by a dispute one is not directly part of, but it often implies a more indirect or unexpected splash effect, while 巻き添えを食う can be used for more direct entanglement.
Etymology From 巻き添え (makizoe, 'getting involved, collateral damage', literally 'rolled-in addition') + を + 食う (kuu, 'to eat', here in the sense of 'to suffer, to incur'). The expression paints a vivid picture of being unwillingly 'swallowed up' by a situation.
