Idiom
pot calling the kettle black
Meaning
A situation in which somebody comments on or accuses someone else of a fault which the accuser shares.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He says I am lazy, which is the pot calling the kettle black.”
“You say I talk too much, but that is the pot calling the kettle black.”
“It is the pot calling the kettle black when you call me messy.”
“She accused me of being late, but that is the pot calling the kettle black since she is always behind schedule.”
“My brother told me to stop spending money on clothes, but it was the pot calling the kettle black because he just bought a new car.”
“The manager warned us about using phones at work, though we all knew it was the pot calling the kettle black as he texts all day.”
“Our neighbor complained about our noisy dog, which was the pot calling the kettle black since his own dogs bark every single night.”
“When the politician criticized his opponent for being dishonest, the public recognized it as the pot calling the kettle black, given his own history of deception.”
Examples
simple
“He says I am lazy, which is the pot calling the kettle black.”
“You say I talk too much, but that is the pot calling the kettle black.”
“It is the pot calling the kettle black when you call me messy.”
contextual
“She accused me of being late, but that is the pot calling the kettle black since she is always behind schedule.”
“My brother told me to stop spending money on clothes, but it was the pot calling the kettle black because he just bought a new car.”
“The manager warned us about using phones at work, though we all knew it was the pot calling the kettle black as he texts all day.”
“Our neighbor complained about our noisy dog, which was the pot calling the kettle black since his own dogs bark every single night.”
complex
“When the politician criticized his opponent for being dishonest, the public recognized it as the pot calling the kettle black, given his own history of deception.”
Origin
From Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605; in Thomas Shelton's 1620 English translation, 'the pot calls the kettle black-arse') — both are blackened by the same cooking fire.
Key words
Related idioms
- Level
- B1 · Intermediate
- Updated