fox in the henhouse

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.

Alternative forms

• fox guarding the henhouse

Translations

someone untrustworthy placed in a position of trust

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 虎入羊群 (zh) (hǔrùyángqún), 虎入羊羣 (zh) (hǔrùyángqún, literally “tiger in a flock of lambs”)

• Czech: udělat kozla zahradníkem (cs)
• Finnish: pukki kaalimaan vartijana, kettu kanatarhassa
• German: den Bock zum Gärtner machen (de) (literally “make the goat into a gardener”)
• Hungarian: kecskére bízza a káposztát (literally “entrust a goat with the cabbage”)
• Italian: volpe nel pollaio f
• Japanese: 猫に鰹節 (ねこ に かつおぶし, neko ni katsuobushi, literally “cat in skipjack tuna”)
• Livonian: neiku lambõd sieggõ suž lastõd (literally “like a wolf allowed among sheep”)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sette bukken til å passe havresekken (no) (literally “make the goat watch over the oatbag”)

• Polish: lis w kurniku m
• Spanish: zamuro cuidando carne (es) m (Venezuela)

See also

• cock in the henhouse
• wolf guarding the sheep
• accident waiting to happen
• set the cat among the pigeons