Definition
Someone untrustworthy placed in a position of trust in which they will be harmful, damaging or detrimental for their own personal gain.
Origins
A metaphor referring to the fox as a predator that would prey on the chickens if given an opportunity to do so.
In Context
- "While the Commissioner of Patents is normally expected to understand and to promote the patent system as a bulwark for promoting the U.S. economy, the current Commissioner is, in many ways, a fox in the henhouse, undertaking to destroy that which he was commissioned to protect and to strengthen."
See Also
- cock in the henhouse
- wolf guarding the sheep
- accident waiting to happen
- set the cat among the pigeons