cock in the henhouse

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

A person who is in a position to exploit or take advantage of others

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Người có vị trí để khai thác hoặc lợi dụng người khác

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: male chicken in a female chicken's enclosure
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The new manager was like a cock in the henhouse, firing staff left and right

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “cock in the henhouse” mean?

A person who is in a position to exploit or take advantage of others Literally: male chicken in a female chicken's enclosure

Is “cock in the henhouse” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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