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Curiosity killed the cat

  1. People should mind their own business. This expression apparently first appeared in print in an O. Henry story in the early 1900s.


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Idioms and Phrases

It's best to mind one's own business. For example, Don't ask about his divorce—curiosity killed the cat . This cautionary expression sounds like the moral of some fable or folktale, but any such origin for it has been lost. The first recorded use was in O. Henry's Schools and Schools (1909).
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” I called out to her.

From

Though curiosity killed the cat, Beatrice and I followed.

From

“Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.”

From

Curiosity killed the cat, I know, but I try to land on my feet.

From

“Whoever coined the phrase, ‘Curiosity killed the cat,’ never met a horse,” Downs said with a grin.

From

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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