<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Look up cut off one's nose to spite one's face in Wiktionary, the free dictionary . </Td> </Tr> <P> "Cutting off the nose to spite the face" is an expression to describe a needlessly self - destructive over-reaction to a problem: "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" is a warning against acting out of pique, or against pursuing revenge in a way that would damage oneself more than the object of one's anger . </P> <P> The phrase is known to have been used in the 12th century . It may be associated with the numerous legends of pious women disfiguring themselves in order to protect their virginity . These cases include Saint Eusebia, Saint Ebba, Saint Oda of Hainault and Saint Margaret of Hungary . </P> <P> One example of these cases is that of Saint Ebba (sometimes called Æbbe the Younger), the Mother Superior of the monastery of Coldingham Priory . In 867 AD, Viking pirates from Zealand and Uppsala landed in Scotland . When news of the raid reached Saint Ebba, she gathered her nuns together and urged them to disfigure themselves, so that they might be unappealing to the Vikings . In this way, they hoped to protect their chastity . She demonstrated this by cutting off her nose and upper lip, and the nuns proceeded to do the same . The Viking raiders were so disgusted that they burned the entire building to the ground with the nuns inside . </P>

Where does the saying cut your nose off to spite your face come from
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