buy a dog and bark oneself
To do something that one has hired someone else to do.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“If you hire a cleaner, do not buy a dog and bark yourself.”
“The manager keeps rewriting the reports instead of trusting his team, effectively buying a dog and barking himself.”
“By constantly micromanaging the tasks he delegated to his expert consultants, the CEO ended up buying a dog and barking himself, much to the frustration of his staff.”
- 01
adorn oneself with borrowed plumes
To claim the honor of another for oneself.
- 02
all bark and no bite
Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious.
- 03
apply oneself
Synonym of strive: to work hard, to complete an activity with good effort and focus.
- 04
bark up the wrong tree
To take the wrong approach to a situation; to follow a false lead; to attempt to solve a problem using mistaken assumptions about its true nature.
- 05
be oneself
To behave or act naturally, without regard to how this behavior is perceived by others.
- 06
bear oneself
To behave and conduct oneself in a particular manner.
- 07
been there, done that, bought the T-shirt
Expresses the speaker's complete familiarity with a situation, with overtones of cynicism or exhaustion.
- 08
box oneself into a corner
To create a predicament or problem for oneself; to do something that leaves one with no good alternatives or solutions.
Last updated August 10, 2026