Word.ws English Dictionary

poacher turned gamekeeper

poacher turned gamekeeper noun: a person now charged with protecting what they formerly preyed upon.

Noun

poacher turned gamekeeper (plural poachers turned gamekeepers)

  1. (figuratively, idiomatic) A person now charged with protecting what they formerly preyed upon.
    • Ah! poacher turned gamekeeper! That be settin' thief to catch thief!1877, Mayne Reid, Gwen Wynn: A Romance of the Wye, volume III, Tinsley Brothers, page 71
    • When President Roosevelt appointed Kennedy to the Securities Exchange Commission, he was acting on the "poacher turned gamekeeper" principle.1938, The Strand Magazine, volume 95, page 373
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see poacher, turned, gamekeeper.

Synonyms of poacher turned gamekeeper

Forms of poacher turned gamekeeper

pluralpoachers turned gamekeepers

Origin of poacher turned gamekeeper

The figurative sense is by self-evident metaphor from the literal sense. The thought of poachers turned gamekeepers goes back centuries; for example, William Tinsley said in his memoirs that "There is an old saying that the most expert poachers make the best gamekeepers. I do not think the saying is true as a rule […]".

Questions about poacher turned gamekeeper

What does poacher turned gamekeeper mean?
Poacher turned gamekeeper means a person now charged with protecting what they formerly preyed upon.
What part of speech is poacher turned gamekeeper?
Poacher turned gamekeeper is a noun.
What is the plural of poacher turned gamekeeper?
The plural of poacher turned gamekeeper is poachers turned gamekeepers.

Words near poacher turned gamekeeper in the dictionary

  1. poached egg
  2. poached egg daisy
  3. poached eggs
  4. poached up
  5. poacher
  6. poacher turned gamekeeper
  7. poacher's gun
  8. poacher's pie
  9. poacher's pot
  10. poachers
  11. poachers turned gamekeepers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poacher turned gamekeeper (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-poacher turned gamekeeper.ogg.

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