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Once bitten, twice shy

  1. An injury makes a person wary of its cause.


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Idioms and Phrases

Once hurt, one is doubly cautious in the future, as in He was two days late last time, so she's not hiring him again—once bitten, twice shy . This seemingly old observation, presumably alluding to an animal biting someone, was first recorded in 1894.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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once and for allonce in a blue moon