Jump To:

• Curiosity killed the cat
  Curiosity killed the cat

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

  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).

Curiosity killed the cat

Cultural  

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

---

curiosity killed the cat Idioms  

1. 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).

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Curiosity killed the cat curiosity killed the cat

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

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

"Curiosity killed the cat," he said, and there was the faintest glimmer of a smile on his face but it was only fleeting.

From The Hand by Sohl, Gerald Allan

I have been working in the IT field since I left university back in 1999, and when the dump was finally made public, well: curiosity killed the cat.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 21, 2015

Such was the moral of the Dutch Vanishing: curiosity killed the cat.

From Time Magazine Archive

Though curiosity killed the cat, Beatrice and I followed.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck

"Watch out now for this bag while I put up the car—and don't forget that curiosity killed the cat."

From The Foolish Virgin by Dixon, Thomas