chickens come home to roost

Idioms  

1. The consequences of doing wrong always catch up with the wrongdoer, as in Now that you're finally admitting your true age, no one believes you—chickens come home to roost. The fact that chickens usually come home to rest and sleep has long been known, but the idea was used figuratively only in 1809, when Robert Southey wrote, “Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost” (The Curse of Kehama).

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Example Sentences

This is a team of players who are simply not good enough without exception, and that lies with the board, so all in all, the chickens come home to roost.

From BBC • Dec. 17, 2025

But whether pastured or caged, chickens come home to roost.

From New York Times • Oct. 27, 2015

Like a wild party, before the chickens come home to roost and there’s a reckoning.

From Slate • Sep. 14, 2012

Here it is: the dreaded "moral," in which all of Dickens' didactic chickens come home to roost.

From Salon • Dec. 25, 2009

Water rises to the height of its source; results follow causes; chickens come home to roost; action and reaction are equal; forces set in motion continue indefinitely in one direction.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 11 Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Businessmen by Hubbard, Elbert