kill the goose that lays the golden egg(s)
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To destroy a valuable resource or source of benefit
Literally: killing a goose that produces golden eggs
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
These various factors combined to ensure that the local elite (even if they were capable of considering it) would not attempt to kill the goose ' that laid the golden eggs '.
If we fail to build a healthy, living soil, chemicals will, at best, provide a short - term panacea; in the long term they will ‘ kill the goose that lays the golden egg’.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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 goose that lays the golden egg(s)” mean?
To destroy a valuable resource or source of benefit Literally: killing a goose that produces golden eggs
Is “kill the goose that lays the golden egg(s)” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.