Blog Archive

Friday, April 22, 2011

Once Bitten Twice Shy

Basic Definitions:
When something or someone has hurt you once, you tend to avoid that thing or person.

Something that you say which means when you have had an unpleasant experience you are much more careful to avoid similar experiences in the future.

One is cautious in the future if one has been hurt in the past.

Synonymic idiom: The burnt child dreads the fire

Further explained:
If you fall in love with a girl and the girl ditches you, what would your reaction be? You would probably be really angry, but at the same time you would be scared to fall in love again. Having had a bad experience previously, you would be reluctant to put yourself in the same situation again. That's what the idiom, "once bitten twice shy", means.

Some examples:
*The caterer arrived three hours late last time, so Rama is not hiring him again. I guess it's a case of once bitten twice shy.

*The last time he ate fish, he almost choked. He's stopped eating fish altogether — once bitten twice shy.

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