come home to roost
Past actions rebound
Come home to roost describes consequences returning to affect the person who caused them.
The image is of chickens that wander during the day but return to their roost at night—actions, like birds, eventually come back.
Usually applied to negative outcomes: His years of neglecting his health have finally come home to roost.
All those lies are coming home to roost.
- backfireYield unintended consequences
- boomerangSelf-returning thrown weapon
- proverbialWidely known from maxims
- consequencesResults of actions taken
- face the musicAccept deserved consequences
blow up in your face · pay the piper · day of reckoning · return · culpability · reckoning · karma · bad karma · repercussions · comeuppance · outcomes · backlash · effects · accountability · payback · bounce back · rebound · fallout
come home to roostget away with it
get away with murder · slip through the cracks · beat the rap · walk free · fall through the cracks
come home to roostinstant karma
Immediate consequence for actions
swift justice · poetic justice · caught red-handed · caught in the act · nipped in the bud
come, comes, home, homes, homed, homeless, homely, homeward, homeland