Word.ws English Dictionary

spare the rod and spoil the child

spare the rod and spoil the child proverb: if one does not discipline a child, they will never learn obedience and good manners.

spare the rod and spoil the child: if one does not discipline a child, they will never learn obedience and good manners
Image: Hans Holbein the Younger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proverb

spare the rod and spoil the child

  1. If one does not discipline a child, they will never learn obedience and good manners.

spare the rod and spoil the child meaning in Telugu and Vietnamese

spare the rod and spoil the child in Telugu

if one does not discipline a child he or she will never learn respect or humility
మొక్కై వంగనిది మానై వంగున mokkai vaṅganidi mānai vaṅguna

spare the rod and spoil the child in Vietnamese

if one does not discipline a child he or she will never learn respect or humility
cá không ăn muối cá ươn, thương cho roi cho vọt

Forms of spare the rod and spoil the child

alternative formspare the rod, spoil the child
alternative formspare the rod and you will spoil the child

Origin of spare the rod and spoil the child

Commonly claimed to have come from the King James Version of the Bible, Book of Proverbs, 13:24: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” Due to the associated “spoil" concept which is not in the Bible, it more likely came from a 17th-century poem by Samuel Butler called Hudibras. In the poem, a love affair is likened to a child, and spanking is mockingly commended as a way to make the love grow stronger. The actual verse reads: : What medicine else can cure the fits Of lovers when they lose their wits? Love is a boy by poets styled Then spare the rod and spoil the child.

Questions about spare the rod and spoil the child

What does spare the rod and spoil the child mean?
Spare the rod and spoil the child means if one does not discipline a child, they will never learn obedience and good manners.
What is spare the rod and spoil the child in Telugu?
Spare the rod and spoil the child in Telugu is మొక్కై వంగనిది మానై వంగున (mokkai vaṅganidi mānai vaṅguna). See Spare the rod and spoil the child meaning in Telugu.
What part of speech is spare the rod and spoil the child?
Spare the rod and spoil the child is a proverb.

Words near spare the rod and spoil the child in the dictionary

  1. spare room
  2. spare room subsidy
  3. spare rooms
  4. spare someone the details
  5. spare someone's blushes
  6. spare the rod and spoil the child
  7. spare the rod and you will spoil the child
  8. spare the rod, spoil the child
  9. spare time
  10. spare tire
  11. spare tire well

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spare the rod and spoil the child (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spare the rod and spoil the child.wav.

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