vent spleen

V

vent spleen

Meaning:

  • to exhibit your rage
  • to express your feelings of anger
  • air, articulate or give voice to one’s anger

Example:

  1. The board members in the annual meeting witnessed the company’s shareholders venting their spleen over them as they were angry.
  2. After being treated badly by the coach, Meher saw the interview as an opportunity to vent her spleen indirectly at the coach.
  3. After the journalist got beaten by the chairman, journalists vented their spleen by participating in the protest march for getting the chairman arrested.
  4. These days people have started venting their spleen over social media, against the malpractices of the government.
  5. Doctors say that those people who suppress their emotions are subjected to various life long & fatal diseases compared to those who vent their spleen by engaging in different positive activities.
  6. It is better to get aside when someone is venting their spleen rather than arguing & elevating their anger.
  7. The social workers used the press conference as an opportunity to vent their spleen on politicians.

Origin:
The idiom vent your spleen got its reference from the “spleen”, an organ in the body near the stomach. It was believed in European medicine until 19th century from medieval times that the emotion of anger was caused by the spleen which was source of humours. Therefore, anger could be expelled by venting the spleen.

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…replaced by ‘let off steam’…as in steam engines… the dehumanization of Homo sapiens in the machine age…

‒ Helena Fontaine July 23, 2020

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