burn one's fingers

Idioms  

1. Harm oneself, as in I'm staying away from risky stocks; I've burned my fingers often enough. Some believe this expression came from a legend about a monkey who gets a cat to pull its chestnuts out of the fire (see cat's paw); others hold it is from an English proverb: “Burn not thy fingers to snuff another's candle” (James Howell, English Proverbs, 1659). [c. 1700]

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Example Sentences

I haven't the moral courage, and one can easily burn one's fingers at it, too.

From Erdgeist (Earth-Spirit) A Tragedy in Four Acts by Eliot, Samuel A. (Samuel Atkins)

Playing Providence is a game at which one is very apt to burn one's fingers.

From Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 3 by Huxley, Leonard