See the chickens come home to roost on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "19th century. First attested as lies, like chickens, come home to roost, although the slightly later curses, like chickens, come home to roost was more common. Both are often said to be Spanish or Turkish in origin. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs notes that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in The Parson's Tale: “And ofte tyme swich cursynge wrongfully retorneth agayn to hym that curseth, as a bryd that retorneth agayn to his owene nest.”",
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{
"text": "1846, Lydia Maria Child, The Mother's Book, C.S. Francis & Co. (6th ed., 1st ed. from 1844), page 98.\nNever were truer words than the Spanish proverb, ‘All lies, like chickens, come home to roost.’",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1963, Malcolm X, speech, December 1, 1963",
"text": "Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1995, Loudon Wainwright III, Cobwebs:",
"text": "I suppose you could blame it on my generation, chickens from the 60s finally coming into roost.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 March 22, Brooklyn Baldwin, “Rand Paul, Staunch Opponent of Coronavirus Healthcare Package, Diagnosed with Coronavirus”, in The Root:",
"text": "Malcolm X ain't never lie; Chickens do come home to roost! And you would think that a senator from Kentucky would know that better than anyone.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"text": "Opponents see the latest indictments as a case of the chickens coming home to roost.",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person's past wrongdoings will return to negatively affect them."
],
"id": "en-the_chickens_come_home_to_roost-en-proverb-JvI~cfLg",
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"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A person's past wrongdoings will return to negatively affect them."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "evil be to him who evil thinks"
},
{
"word": "karma"
},
{
"word": "old sins have long shadows"
},
{
"word": "reap what one sows"
},
{
"word": "sow the wind, reap the whirlwind"
},
{
"word": "what goes around comes around"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "come home to roost"
},
{
"word": "curses, like chickens, come home to roost"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "hàirénhàijǐ",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "害人害己"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "minkä taakseen jättää, sen edestään löytää"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "niin makaat kuin petaat"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "tutti i nodi vengono al pettine"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "hito wo norowaba ana futatsu",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "人を呪わば穴二つ"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "cierp ciało, skoroś chciało"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "Dumnezeu nu bate cu parul"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "ne roj jámu drugómu, sam v nejó popadjóšʹ",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "не рой я́му друго́му, сам в неё попадёшь"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "kak aúknetsja, tak i otklíknetsja",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "как ау́кнется, так и откли́кнется"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "la cabra siempre tira al monte"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "de aquellos polvos, estos lodos"
},
{
"code": "uz",
"lang": "Uzbek",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "Qilgan koʻradi ekkan oʻradi (Qilgan koʻradi ekkan oʻradi)"
}
]
}
],
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"word": "the chickens come home to roost"
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{
"etymology_text": "19th century. First attested as lies, like chickens, come home to roost, although the slightly later curses, like chickens, come home to roost was more common. Both are often said to be Spanish or Turkish in origin. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs notes that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in The Parson's Tale: “And ofte tyme swich cursynge wrongfully retorneth agayn to hym that curseth, as a bryd that retorneth agayn to his owene nest.”",
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"lang": "English",
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"pos": "proverb",
"related": [
{
"word": "evil be to him who evil thinks"
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{
"word": "karma"
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{
"word": "old sins have long shadows"
},
{
"word": "reap what one sows"
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"word": "sow the wind, reap the whirlwind"
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"type": "quotation"
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"ref": "1963, Malcolm X, speech, December 1, 1963",
"text": "Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1995, Loudon Wainwright III, Cobwebs:",
"text": "I suppose you could blame it on my generation, chickens from the 60s finally coming into roost.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 March 22, Brooklyn Baldwin, “Rand Paul, Staunch Opponent of Coronavirus Healthcare Package, Diagnosed with Coronavirus”, in The Root:",
"text": "Malcolm X ain't never lie; Chickens do come home to roost! And you would think that a senator from Kentucky would know that better than anyone.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"text": "Opponents see the latest indictments as a case of the chickens coming home to roost.",
"type": "example"
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"word": "come home to roost"
},
{
"word": "curses, like chickens, come home to roost"
}
],
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{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "hàirénhàijǐ",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "害人害己"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "minkä taakseen jättää, sen edestään löytää"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "niin makaat kuin petaat"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "tutti i nodi vengono al pettine"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "hito wo norowaba ana futatsu",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "人を呪わば穴二つ"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "cierp ciało, skoroś chciało"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "Dumnezeu nu bate cu parul"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "ne roj jámu drugómu, sam v nejó popadjóšʹ",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "не рой я́му друго́му, сам в неё попадёшь"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "kak aúknetsja, tak i otklíknetsja",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "как ау́кнется, так и откли́кнется"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "la cabra siempre tira al monte"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "de aquellos polvos, estos lodos"
},
{
"code": "uz",
"lang": "Uzbek",
"sense": "a person's past wrongdoings will always return to negatively affect them (idiom)",
"word": "Qilgan koʻradi ekkan oʻradi (Qilgan koʻradi ekkan oʻradi)"
}
],
"word": "the chickens come home to roost"
}
Download raw JSONL data for the chickens come home to roost meaning in All languages combined (5.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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