fox in the henhouse

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English

Etymology

A metaphor referring to the fox as a predator that would prey on the chickens if given an opportunity to do so.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Hyphenation: fox in the hen‧house

Noun

fox in the henhouse (plural foxes in the henhouse or foxes in henhouses)

  1. (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.

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