a burnt child dreads the fire

• the burnt child dreads the fire, the burnt child fears the fire
• All forms also with burned

a burnt child dreads the fire

1. (dated) A person harmed by something becomes more cautious about it.
   • 1886 December 23, “The Week”, in The Chronicle: A Weekly Insurance Journal, volume 38, number 26, page 309:

     The Continental insurance company has instructed its agents not to use Rubber Stamps to affix their signatures to policies, renewals, etc., because “Rubber Stamps are easily duplicated, at small expense, even in the case of fac-similes of signatures, and forgery and fraud are facilitated by their use.” […] A burnt child dreads the fire and the Continental has had a painful experience.

   • 1888 May 4, Sam Heakes, Joseph Gray, “[Questioning]”, in Report of the Royal Commmission on the Relations of Capital and Labor in Canada: Evidence—Ontario, published 1889, page 1092:

     A.—They struck. A combination of the Knights of Labor caused them to strike. / […] / Q.—Did you refuse to give them work again? A.—I did. / Q.—What was the reason? A.—Because a “burnt child dreads the fire,” and we did not want them again.

   • 1923, George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, Dulcy: A Comedy in Three Acts‎, page 126:

     I didn’t mean to interfere, dear. I never will again. You can rely on me. A burnt child dreads the fire. Once bitten—

   • 1932 January 14, Butler B. Hare, “Reconstruction Finance Corporation”, in Proceedings and Debates of the First Session of the Seventy-Second Congress of the United States of America, volume 75, part 2, published 1932, page 1968:

     […] I doubt very much whether such funds will soon be placed in the channels of trade, because “a burnt child dreads the fire.” These depositors will not entrust their earnings any time soon to another banking institution unless they have some assurance or guarantee that such deposits will be protected.

   • 1945 April 26, Phyllis Greenacre, Conscience in the Psychopath; republished as J. Reid Meloy, editor, The Mark of Cain: Psychoanalytic Insight and the Psychopath‎, 2001, →ISBN:

     They are the living antithesis of the saying, “A burnt child dreads the fire,” since they repeat the same fiascos time and again in an impressively self-destructive fashion.

• once bitten, twice shy