curiosity killed the cat
Meaning
Usage frequency
Common · 17 corpus occurrences
Recorded for “Curiosity killed the cat” in COCA, searched on 2016-06-30.
About these frequency groups
Groups use full-form occurrence counts in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), recorded in 2016–2017. For a proverb with several forms, we use the highest individual count, since adding overlapping forms could count the same occurrence twice.
These are historical American English corpus counts, not estimates of how often everyone uses a saying today. A zero means no full-form match was recorded. The source’s separate familiarity ratings are retained in the data but do not determine this ordering.
We grouped variants, merged reviewed duplicate entries, and preserved existing editorial wording. The source includes historical and dated sayings; inclusion is not an endorsement.
In a conversation
“Don't poke around in the manager's desk — curiosity killed the cat.”
When to use it
Often a teasing or pointed warning to stop asking questions or investigating someone else’s affairs.
The image behind the saying
A proverb: the cat's legendary curiosity is pictured as costing it its life; a warning that meddling in others' affairs is risky.