stung to the quick

sting (one) to the quick

To deeply emotionally hurt or offend one. The comments stung me to the quick, but I remained composed and carried on with the lecture.
See also: quick, sting

stung to the quick

Deeply emotionally hurt or offended. I was stung to the quick to learn that they called my dress tacky behind my back. The hostess, stung to the quick by her guests' words, locked herself in the bedroom upstairs.
See also: quick, stung
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

cut to the quick

To be deeply wounded; to have one’s feelings hurt. The noun “quick” means the living, as well as the most vital and important part; today it also means the very sensitive flesh between the fingernails and skin. To be touched to the quick, meaning to be deeply affected, has been used since the sixteenth century; it appears in John Heywood’s Proverbs and in several places in Shakespeare’s plays (Hamlet, The Comedy of Errors, and others). Another version is stung to the quick, as in “The last appellation stung her to the quick” (Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews, 1742). “Cut to the quick” is a still later wording and has been a cliché since about 1850. See also quick and the dead.
See also: cut, quick
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • sting (one) to the quick
  • bunny
  • quick march
  • quick on the draw
  • be quick on the draw
  • quick on the trigger
  • lightning quick
  • quick as a wink/bunny
  • double quick
  • (as) quick as anything
References in classic literature
"Self-respect!" said Levin, stung to the quick by his brother's words; "I don't understand.
do you mean to say it's not of importance?" said Sergey Ivanovitch, stung to the quick too at his brother's considering anything of no importance that interested him, and still more at his obviously paying little attention to what he was saying.
Anna Karenina
They had been stung to the quick, also, by the vaunting airs assumed by the Northwesters.
Astoria or Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountain
Not a bit of it," said Razumihin, stung to the quick.
Crime And Punishment
The governor of Karnataka was stung to the quick. The description fitted him eminently.
Governor's role
Turning to his side, Luna spoke loud enough to be heard in the room: 'There is another traitor whom we should be permitted to eliminate!' Stung to the quick, Buencamino fumed: 'I deny your accusation; as for me, if there is any traitor among all those who form the government and army of the Republic, it is you because if you had not taken the one thousand soldiers armed with Mauser guns from Calumpit in order to subdue General Masardo without permission of the Captain General, until now the American Army would be surrounded at Malolos (sic).
Luna's slapping of Buencamino
Stung to the quick, the Congress has hit back asking him to declare details of his assets, running into crores.
Yoga Guru Ramdev in row over alleged assets
Soon, however, and naturally enough, the father of sin returned to sloth and obstinacy, and Martin hurried him again with repeated signs of the Cross, till, twitched and stung to the quick by those crossings so hateful to him, the vexed and tired reprobate uttered the following distich in a rage:</p> <pre> Signa te, signa; temere me tangis et angis, Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.
Classic Latin palindromes
He who through a natural mildness and easygoingness should despise injuries received would do a very fine and praiseworthy thing; but he who, outraged and stung to the quick by an injury, should arm himself with the arms of reason against this furious appetite for vengeance, and after a great conflict should finally master it, would without doubt do much more.
Ethics: time to revisit the basics