a burnt child dreads the fire
a burnt child dreads the fire proverb: a person harmed by something becomes more cautious about it.
Proverb
a burnt child dreads the fire
- A person harmed by something becomes more cautious about it.
- The Continental insurance company has instructed its agents not to use Rubber Stamps to affix their signatures to policies, renewals, etc., because “Rubber Stamps are easily duplicated, at small expense, even in the case of fac-similes of signatures, and forgery and fraud are facilitated by their...1886 December 23, “The Week”, in The Chronicle: A Weekly Insurance Journal, volume 38, number 26, page 309
- A.—They struck. A combination of the Knights of Labor caused them to strike. / […] / Q.—Did you refuse to give them work again? A.—I did. / Q.—What was the reason? A.—Because a “burnt child dreads the fire,” and we did not want them again.1888 May 4, Sam Heakes, Joseph Gray, “[Questioning]”, in Report of the Royal Commission on the Relations of Capital and Labor in Canada: Evidence—Ontario, published 1889, page 1092
- Synonyms:
- once bitten, twice shy
a burnt child dreads the fire meaning in Hindi, Bengali and Indonesian
a burnt child dreads the fire in Hindi
- a person harmed by something becomes more cautious about it — see also once bitten, twice shy
- दूध का जला छाछ भी फूँक फूँक कर पीता है dūdh kā jalā chāch bhī phū̃k phū̃k kar pītā hai
a burnt child dreads the fire in Bengali
- a person harmed by something becomes more cautious about it — see also once bitten, twice shy
- ঘর পোড়া গরু সিঁদুরে মেঘ দেখে ডরায় ghor pōṛa goru śĩdure megh dekhe ḍoraẏ
a burnt child dreads the fire in Indonesian
- a person harmed by something becomes more cautious about it — see also once bitten, twice shy
- sekali tersengat selalu beringat
Synonyms of a burnt child dreads the fire
Forms of a burnt child dreads the fire
| alternative form | the burnt child dreads the fire |
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| alternative form | the burnt child fears the fire |
Questions about a burnt child dreads the fire
- What does a burnt child dreads the fire mean?
- A burnt child dreads the fire means a person harmed by something becomes more cautious about it.
- What is a burnt child dreads the fire in Hindi?
- A burnt child dreads the fire in Hindi is दूध का जला छाछ भी फूँक फूँक कर पीता है (dūdh kā jalā chāch bhī phū̃k phū̃k kar pītā hai). See A burnt child dreads the fire meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is a burnt child dreads the fire?
- A burnt child dreads the fire is a proverb.
Words near a burnt child dreads the fire in the dictionary
- a bridge too far
- a broken clock is right twice a day
- a buck is a buck
- a buck is a buck is a buck
- a buck's a buck
- a burnt child dreads the fire
- a calorie is a calorie
- a calorie is a calorie is a calorie
- a camel is a horse designed by a committee
- a camel is a horse made by a committee
- a camel is a horse made by committee
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: a burnt child dreads the fire (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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