If You Lay Down With Dogs, You’ll Get Up With Fleas
In Appalachian and Southern speech, "If you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas" means associating with bad people brings trouble. It’s a vivid country proverb rooted in everyday rural life.
I didn't hear 'if you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas' all that much growin' up, but I do still here it now and again. I didn't hear 'if you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas' all that much growin' up, but I do still here it now and again. Pronunciation
Meaning & Usage
- Associating with bad people brings harm (proverb)
He’s been runnin’ with that crowd.Well, if you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas.- Even contact with trouble can rub off (figurative)
I told him that job was shady.Yep. If you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas.Origin and Etymology
Goes back to at least the 18th century in English writings but became entrenched in Southern/Appalachian speech thanks to the vivid, everyday image of farm dogs and fleas. The "lay" form reflects authentic rural grammar.
Usage Notes
Still widely used in Southern/Appalachian storytelling and church sermons. Less common outside the region, though its meaning is instantly clear. The "lie" version appears in print; the "lay" version lives in speech.
Say It Like a Southerner
Said plain: "If you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas." In standard English it’s "lie down," but Southern/Appalachian speech naturally uses "lay."
- Knock a Mud Hole in You and Walk It Dry
- Cuss Someone Like a Dog
- The Devil With...
- Squeezes a Nickel Till the Buffalo Hollers
- So Tight the Eagle Screams
- Let Me Tell You How the Cow Ate the Cabbage
- Fly Off the Handle
- He Thinks the Sun Comes Up Just to Hear Him Crow
- Pretty Is as Pretty Does
- Bleeding Like a Stuck Pig