Tuer la poule aux œufs d'or
Meaning: To destroy a source of steady profit out of greed for all of it at once.
Language: French
Literally: To kill the hen that lays the golden eggs
Category: Animals
Origin: From Aesop, where the owner cuts the bird open expecting to find gold inside and finds an ordinary hen. La Fontaine retold it, and English swapped the hen for a goose.
More idioms — Animals
- Écrire un poulet à quelqu'un — To send a love letter.
- À la queue leu leu — In single file, one behind another.
- Avoir la queue entre les jambes — To slink off humiliated.
- Manger à tous les râteliers — To take advantage from all sides at once, with no loyalty to any.
- Une bête de somme — Someone worked relentlessly at heavy, thankless labor.
- Se faire prendre pour un pigeon — To be duped as an easy mark.
More French idioms
- Avoir les portugaises ensablées — To be hard of hearing.
- Laid comme un pou — Extremely ugly.
- Le plancher des vaches — Dry land, as seen from the sea.
- Secouer comme un prunier — To shake someone violently.
- Le marchand de sable est passé — The children are getting sleepy.
- Un pique-nique — A meal eaten outdoors to which everyone contributes.
From our proverbs
- An empty purse fills the face with wrinkles. — Poverty's hardships and anxieties visibly age a person through stress and deprivation.
- That's but an empty purse that's full of other men's money. — Borrowed wealth brings no security; true richness comes from what you genuinely own.
- Empty vessels make the greatest sound. — Loudest complaints often come from those with least knowledge or substance to contribute.
Loading the full interactive collection…