cock in the henhouse
- idiom
- Informal
:
gallo en el gallinero
- The arrival of the new consultant was like a cock in the henhouse, unsettling the entire team.
Examples
-
Bringing a strict disciplinarian to the informal staff was a real cock in the henhouse move.
-
When he joined the knitting club, he felt like a cock in the henhouse.
-
Don't be a cock in the henhouse during the meeting!
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Why does he always act like a cock in the henhouse?
-
The new director's formal approach felt like a cock in the henhouse, disrupting the relaxed culture of the office.
-
His insistence on strict rules made him seem like a cock in the henhouse at the laid-back gathering.
-
Joining the yoga class, he felt like a cock in the henhouse among the relaxed and peaceful participants.
Synonyms
1
8.4
A person who can harm or steal when trusted to look after others
Antonyms
How Disruptive
- Offensive
69
4.1
2
6.5
- Informal
62
3.6
283
4.1
84
3.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal image of a male bird ('cock') inside a henhouse evokes someone out of place or causing disruption, so a learner who knows the constituents can often infer the metaphorical sense. However, the phrase requires pragmatic and cultural inference (and 'henhouse' may be less familiar than more common variants like 'fox in the henhouse'), so the figurative social meaning is not fully predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Cock in the henhouse comes from the simple picture of a noisy cock, a male chicken, strutting into a quiet henhouse and upsetting the hens. So it means 'a person who is out of place or who causes trouble'.