Meaning of it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest | Babel Free

Definitions

A condemnation of anyone who damages their own group, reputation or interests.

Examples

“They say it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest. My own feeling is that a well-behaved bird will neither foul its own nest nor another's, but that, finding it in any wise foul, it will openly say so, and clean it.”

“It's an ill bird that fouls his own nest, and we are all Scots folk and all Hieland.”

“The saying, “It's an ill bird that fouls its own nest” expresses the most universal of ethical norms, and is probably the source of all such norms.”

“He admitted then to having had, for two years, “documents in [his] possession sufficient to have destroyed [the Fenians operating in Montreal], but [he had] thought it was an ill bird that fouled its own nest.”

CEFR level