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An admonition that being excessively inquisitive or prying into others’ affairs can lead to harm or misfortune.
"Do not go snooping around the old abandoned basement; curiosity killed the cat."
"She kept pressing for details on the classified project until warned that curiosity killed the cat."
Individual vocabulary building blocks comprising this expression
Programmatically detected rhetorical, acoustic, and combinatorial properties
Multiple primary words begin with the consonant sound 'C', generating rhythmic oral cadence.
Employs animal behavior or imagery ('cat') to express figurative human conduct.
Originally "Care killed the cat" in Ben Jonson’s 1598 play Every Man in His Humour (where "care" meant worry/sorrow), transforming into "curiosity" by late 19th-century American lore.
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