Talk:fox in the henhouse

RFV discussion

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"A relationship wherein a predator is granted free rein within the prey’s home confinement, often used in the political sense."  — Raifʻhār Doremítzwr ~ (U · T · C) ~ 20:38, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

You aren't challenging the existence of the metaphor. Is it the wording of the definition? Obviously, even a metaphorical fox is not a "relationship". How about glossing it as "a predator with access to prey's refuge." Should we also have fox among the chickens, wolf among the sheep? DCDuring TALK 22:59, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

…As well as cat amongst the pigeons. And yes, this RFV is de facto more a request for rewording than anything else, though the usage is more figurative than "a predator with access to prey's refuge".  — Raifʻhār Doremítzwr ~ (U · T · C) ~ 12:19, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I was mostly thinking of the figurative senses of "predator" and "prey", which are the only ones worth including. Each of these is an instance of the metaphorical constructions: "[predator] among|amidst [prey]" or "[predator] in [prey shelter]". I think Cervantes had noted the proliferation of instances in Don Quixote. DCDuring TALK 14:05, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

"An institutionalised situation of conflict of interest"? Pingku 14:42, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

A fox is not a "situation" and the the definition is not substitutable, though neither criticism should be taken as fatal. I prefer to lay out the roles in the metaphor. An alternative is provide a functional definition using {{non-gloss definition}}. If we had an actual style manual we might lay out how to handle various types of definitions. DCDuring TALK 15:31, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I think I must have meant "a person, entity or organisation involved in a situation of conflict of interest." Such as someone with a history of a certain undesirable activity being put in charge of regulating that activity. Or some person or entity within an organisation involved in a sanctioned self-benefiting activity that is counterproductive to another part of the organisation or to the organisation as a whole. Related is fox-in-the-henhouse, used adjectivally as in "fox-in-the-henhouse problem/situation." Pingku 17:06, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

That seems to be a mere {{form of|attributive form|fox in the henhouse}}.​—msh210℠ (talk) 18:58, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

If you are referring to the hyphenated form, I tentatively agree. Pingku 19:19, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

RFV failed, sense replaced with “{{idiom|metaphor}} {{rfdef|lang=en}}”. —Ruakh_TALK 17:23, 1 November 2010 (UTC)