A burnt child dreads the fire.
Meaning: Pain from past harm creates lasting caution, sometimes excessively, toward similar dangers.
Origin: One of the oldest proverbs in English: the 13th-century Proverbs of Hendyng has "Brend child fur dredeth" — a burnt child dreads fire. Painful experience teaches caution better than any warning.
More proverbs about Challenge
- Where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. — Predators and opportunists inevitably congregate wherever death or decay promises easy su…
- Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves. — Small, consistent savings accumulate into substantial wealth without requiring separate e…
- A cat has nine lives, yet care will kill a cat. — Excessive worry destroys even the most resilient creature faster than physical danger eve…
- Woe to the house where there is no chiding. — Silence about wrongdoing allows harm to fester, making honest correction essential for ho…
- Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. — Early guidance shapes lifelong character; foundational lessons endure through adulthood.
- Where God hath His church the devil will have his chapel. — Evil inevitably establishes itself wherever good flourishes, as opposing forces cannot co…
From our idioms
- Rhedeg fel cath i gythraul — To run frantically fast.
- Siarad fel pwll y môr — To talk endlessly without pause.
- Tynnu blewyn o drwyn — To provoke or tease someone.