kill the chicken to scare the monkey
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Punish one to warn or intimidate others
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Trừng phạt một người để cảnh báo hoặc đe dọa những người khác
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: killing a chicken in front of a monkey to frighten it
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, 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 “kill the chicken to scare the monkey” mean?
Punish one to warn or intimidate others Literally: killing a chicken in front of a monkey to frighten it
Is “kill the chicken to scare the monkey” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.