fox in the henhouse
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]A metaphor referring to the fox as a predator that would prey on the chickens if given an opportunity to do so.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file) - Hyphenation: fox in the hen‧house
Noun
[edit]fox in the henhouse (plural foxes in the henhouse or foxes in henhouses)
- (idiomatic, figurative) Someone untrustworthy placed in a position of trust in which they will be harmful, damaging or detrimental for their own personal gain.
- 1995 October 10, David L. Hill, “The Putsch to Enfeeble the Independent U.S. Inventor”, in Impact on U.S. Exporters of the New GATT Patent Accord: Hearing Before the […] House of Representatives […], published 1997, pages 76–7:
- While the Commissioner of Patents is normally expected to understand and to promote the patent system as a bulwark for promoting the U.S. economy, the current Commissioner is, in many ways, a fox in the henhouse, undertaking to destroy that which he was commissioned to protect and to strengthen.
Alternative forms
[edit]Translations
[edit]someone untrustworthy placed in a position of trust
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