1. Home
2. Idioms
3. curiosity

curiosity

---

---

Curiosity killed the cat.

Prov. Being curious can get you into trouble. (Often used to warn someone against prying into other's affairs.) Jill: Where did you get all that money? Jane: Curiosity killed the cat.

See also: cat, curiosity, killed

die of curiosity

 and die from curiosity

Fig. to experience a strongly felt need to know about something. I was just dying of curiosity! I almost died from curiosity to finish the book and see how the mystery was solved.

See also: curiosity, die, of

pique someone's curiosity

 and pique someone's interest

to arouse interest; to arouse curiosity. The advertisement piqued my curiosity about the product. The professor tried to pique the students' interest in French literature.

See also: curiosity, pique

Curiosity killed the cat.

something that you say in order to warn someone not to ask too many questions about something 'Why are you going away so suddenly?' 'Curiosity killed the cat.'

See also: cat, curiosity, killed

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).

See also: cat, curiosity, killed