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What's the origin of the phrase 'The chickens come home to roost'? The notion of bad deeds, specifically curses, coming back to haunt their originator is long established in the English language and was expressed in print as early as 1390, when Geoffrey Chaucer used it in The Parson’s Tale :
Definition - used of person's past actions that are causing him or her to experience problems in the present. The sense of roost employed here (“to settle down for rest or sleep”) is not now one of the more common ones. Chickens do, in fact, come home to roost, as do most people.
What Does Chickens Come Home to Roost Mean? Chickens come home to roost is a proverbial expression used to convey that bad deeds or mistakes will eventually catch up with the person making them. Collins Dictionary defines it as experiencing the unpleasant effects of bad actions.
The idiom “the chickens come home to roost” is a popular expression that has been used for centuries. It refers to the idea that one’s actions will eventually have consequences, and those consequences will inevitably return to haunt them.
(your/the) chickens come home to ˈroost after a long time you experience the unpleasant effects of something bad or stupid that you have done in the past: For years he avoided paying tax. But now his chickens have come home to roost and he’s got a tax bill of $25 000.
Well-Known Expressions. The chickens come home to roost. Meaning: Eventually, bad deeds or words come back to bite the originator. Background: The idea of bad deeds coming back to curse the originator has been established in the English language since at least the late 1300s, with the earliest known use in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Parson's Tale."
The phrase is believed to have originated in the 19th century, first appearing as “lies, like chickens, come home to roost,” although “curses, like chickens, come home to roost” became more popular shortly after. Both versions are sometimes said to have Spanish or Turkish roots.
Jun 2, 2024 · the chickens come home to roost. ( idiomatic) A person's past wrongdoings will return to negatively affect them. 1846, Lydia Maria Child, The Mother's Book, C.S. Francis & Co. (6th ed., 1st ed. from 1844), page 98. Never were truer words than the Spanish proverb, ‘All lies, like chickens, come home to roost .’.
Chickens coming home to roost. The complete expression is, ‘curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost’ and there is evidence to suggest that the simile between curses rebounding and birds coming home to roost or returning to the nest is very old.
The idiom “come home to roost” is a common expression in English that refers to the consequences of one’s actions catching up with them. This phrase has its roots in farming, where chickens would leave their coop during the day to forage for food and return at nightfall to roost.
