English Proverbs – Curses, like chickens, come home to roost

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Proverb Expansion

A curse is the utterance of an evil wish. Roost is the place where fowls rest at night, to roost means to settle down for the night’s sleep. Chickens and hens that leave the hen-house in search of food in the morning come back to it to roost. Similarly, birds that go out in search of food in the morning return to their nests by evenings. The proverb means that like birds and chickens that come to roost, the curses that go from a person finally come back to him. Curses recoil upon the person who utters them, if one wishes ill to befall another it will come true in the case of the curser himself. When a person wishes that some calamity should befall another person, he is really invoking evil to himself. When a person curses others, it will only recoil on him. Thus the proverb states that just as the chickens return to roost, evil dealings and curses will recoil on the doer himself in due course.

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English proverbs – Best Quotes – Sayings – Curses, like chickens, come home to roost

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