Have Your ‘Chickens Come Home to Roost?'

And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning¹ English.

Like many languages, English loves to use animals in expressions. So, today let's talk about chickens!

English has several chicken expressions that describe human behavior.

For example, if you are an early riser, we might say you wake up with the chickens.

If you are fearful² of something, you might be called a chicken.

And if you run around in a crazy way -- or just very busy -- you are said to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

But today we are going to explore an expression with a little more meaning.

Today, we talk about our past mistakes and sins⁴ – the bad things we have done. We all have them. But the question is: Will they come back to haunt⁵ us? Will they cause us problems?

But what does our past sins have to do with chickens?

The answer is found in this expression: "Your chickens have come home to roost."

For a chicken, to roost means to settle down for rest or sleep. For us, however, the expression is not at all restful. When our chickens come home to roost, it means our past mistakes or wrongdoings have come back to cause us problems.

This happened with a man named Alex. He was very good at one thing – lying. He lied to people at work. He lied to every woman he met. He lied to his neighbors and even to his family.

Then one day, he got into serious trouble with the police. He was accused of stealing from his workplace. And this time, he was not guilty. But no one believed him, and no one came to help. After years of lying to people, his chickens had finally come home to roost. He was on his own.

This expression is also used another way. Bad things might happen to you if you wish for bad things to happen to others. When used this way, we say, "Curses⁷, like chickens, come home to roost." A curse⁶ is like a wish for something bad to happen to someone else.

Let's say two friends named Karen and Daniel have a falling-out – a big fight. Their relationship is really damaged and probably will not be repaired. When telling the story of the fight to his brother, Daniel says, "I hope Karen loses her job or something else really bad happens to her."

Daniel's brother warns him, "You should be careful what you hope for. You know, curses, like chickens, come home to roost."

Words in This Story

sin³ – n. an action that is or is felt to be bad

haunt – v. to eventually cause problems for (someone) as time passes

to roost – v. to settle down for rest or sleep

falling-out – n. a serious argument or disagreement

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 fearful   

adj.惧怕的，担心的；可怕的，吓人的

参考例句：

• What a fearful waste of time!简直太浪费时间了！
• They are fearful of another business depression.他们担心会再次发生商业萧条。

3 sin   

n.罪，罪孽，过失；vi.犯罪，违反

参考例句：

• It's a sin to waste food.浪费食品是一种罪过。
• It's a sin to be indoors on holiday.假期中待在家里实在是罪过。

4 sins   

n.违背宗教[道德原则]的恶行( sin的名词复数 )；罪恶，罪孽；过错，罪过；愚蠢的事，可耻的事v.犯罪，犯过错( sin的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Greed is one of the seven deadly sins . 贪婪是七罪宗之一。
• They had confessed their sins and done their penance. 他们已经告罪并做了补赎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 haunt   

vt.常出没于，使苦恼，萦绕；n.常去的地方

参考例句：

• The area was a haunt of criminals.这个地区是罪犯经常出没的地方。
• The college library is a favorite haunt.大学图书馆是人们喜欢的地方。

6 curse   

n.祸因，祸根；诅咒，咒骂；骂人话

参考例句：

• His wealth proved a curse to him.他的财富成了祸根。
• The rabbits are a curse in this part of the country.兔子在这一带农村是一种祸害。

7 curses   

n. 诅咒，咒骂，祸端，行经 vt. 咒骂，诅咒，引起灾祸 vi. 诅咒

参考例句：

• The old woman rained down curses on our heads. 那老婆子把我们骂得狗血喷头。
• He hurled curses at the unfortunate man who had made the mistake. 他对着这个犯了错误的可怜人大声叫骂。