reopen old wounds

reopen old wounds (third-person singular simple present reopens old wounds, present participle reopening old wounds, simple past and past participle reopened old wounds)

1. To cause the memory of past trauma to be recalled, resulting in renewed suffering.
   • 1994, Edward M. Dew, The trouble in Suriname, 1975-1993, page 202:

     When I had completed The Difficult Flowering of Surinam in 1976, Fred Ormskirk, the late NPS historian and radio commentator, suggested I delete a number of the more unpleasant stories in the book, claiming that it was better to let go of the past and not reopen old wounds.

   • 2007, Vicki Lane, Old Wounds, page 93:

     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—"

   • 2015, Domnica Radulescu, Theater of War and Exile, page 68:

     We return to the countries that had once hurt and destoryed 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.

   • 2023, Muxe Nkondo, Social Memory as a Force for Social and Economic Transformation:

     Sometimes the treatments involved in healing the nation (such as appointing commissions of inquiry) reopen old wounds, therefore measures should be in place to cleanse those sores or stop them from festering.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see reopen,‎ old,‎ wound.
   • 1998, Samuel Lilienthal, Homoeopathic Therapeutics, page 941:

     Old wounds and ulcers reopen and ulcerate.

• Spanish: renovar la herida