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Glite Dictionary
to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

1 8.2
To destroy a steady source of income by greedy short-term choices
  • idiom
translation icon : matar la gallina de los huevos de oro
  • They are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs for short-term profit gain.

So there's that uncertainty to be sure, as one person put it, you know, be careful that we don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Examples

  • The GOP got away with co-opting Ron Paul's original Tea Party movement and thought they had a lock on it, when all they did was kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

    Blog text (30)

  • Did they kill the goose that laid the golden eggs?

    Blog text (19)

  • In the name of making the world better or safer, elites capture the government and end up killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

    Blog text (32)

  • Or to use another cliché: "Do not kill the goose that laid the golden egg."

    Blog text (30)

  • You and your ilk are too blinded by utopian dreams to realize that all you're asking for is to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

    Blog text (19)

  • If we push for unreasonable regulations, we might inadvertently kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

  • The company's decision to cut back on research and development could kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

  • By focusing solely on quick profits, they may end up killing the goose that lays the golden eggs for future generations.

Synonyms

plucking her goose
vsto kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
  • Informal
9.9

Doing something risky and foolish that will likely make you lose money or get into trouble

ruins a steady income or benefit through greedy or foolish actions
to make ducks and drakes
vsto kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
  • Archaic
9.9

To waste money or other things by being careless

targets a reliable ongoing source rather than general wasteful spending

Antonyms

to preserve
496 3.4

To keep people and things safe from harm or change

to nurture
155 3.5

To care for and encourage someone or something to grow

How Harmful

to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
1 8.2
to destroy
∞ 1.0
to ruin
∞ 2.0
to damage
885 1.4
to harm
738 1.0

Surface Forms

kill the goose that lays the golden eggs infinitive
killed the goose that lays the golden eggs past
killed the goose that lays the golden eggs past participle
killing the goose that lays the golden eggs present participle
kills the goose that lays the golden eggs third person singular

Morphology

kill + the + goose + that + lay + the + golden + eggs

The literal components (kill; goose; lays; golden eggs) make the core idea—destroying a source that produces valuable output—relatively inferable from the parts, since a learner who knows 'golden' = valuable can see that killing the producer stops the benefit. However, the fuller idiomatic meaning (the cautionary moral about short-sighted or greedy behaviour and its proverbial status) relies on cultural/pragmatic knowledge and is not fully predictable from the words alone.

Etymology

The saying kill the goose that lays the golden eggs comes from an old story about a farmer who had a goose that laid a golden egg each day. He grew greedy and killed the bird to get all the gold at once, so he lost his steady source of money, which is why the phrase means to 'ruin a steady source of money or benefit'.