IdiomAnimals
Dutch
Dutchmet de kippen op stok gaan
Meaning: to go to bed very early, at sunset.
Literally: To go to roost with the chickens
Example: “Op vakantie gaan we met de kippen op stok.” — On vacation, we go to bed as soon as it gets dark.
Origin: Chickens go to roost on their stok, the perch in the henhouse, at sunset, so going to roost with the chickens is going to bed very early. Stoett finds it in the 18th century, in Wolff and Deken's novel Willem Leevend and in Sewel's dictionary ("to go to bed with the fowls very early"). French says se coucher avec les poules.
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