- English translation
Lay your egg right where you do your clucking.
- Literal wording
The place where you cluck, lay [your egg].
- Meaning and lesson
The picture is of a hen, which tends to cackle noisily as laying time approaches. The saying, addressed to her in the feminine singular, tells her to produce the egg on the very spot where she has been making her noise, rather than troubling anyone else with it.
Transferred to people, it tells someone to stay in their own place and stop disturbing others in their homes; the hen's grammatical gender need not limit whom it addresses. A person's own house is presented as the fitting and better place for them.
- When it is used
Directed at someone who is bothering other people in their homes, as a reminder that they belong in their own place and should not impose their presence or disturbance on others' households.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Lay your egg right where you do your clucking.