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Meaning of the chickens come home to roost | Babel Free

Phrase CEFR C2

Definitions

A person's past wrongdoings will return to negatively affect them.

idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“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.’”
“Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad.”
“I suppose you could blame it on my generation, chickens from the 60s finally coming into roost.”
“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.”
“Opponents see the latest indictments as a case of the chickens coming home to roost.”

CEFR level

C2
Mastery
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.

See also

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