the chickens come home to roost
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Also seen as: curses, like chickens, come home to roost
Consequences of past actions return to haunt or harm someone.
hậu quả của hành động trong quá khứ quay lại ám ảnh hoặc gây hại cho ai đó
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Examples
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “the chickens come home to roost” mean?
Consequences of past actions return to haunt or harm someone. Literally: chickens returning to their roost
Is “the chickens come home to roost” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.