Also:
A leopard doesn’t change its spots
You can’t change a leopard’s spots
A Tiger can’t change its stripes
Meaning of Idiom ‘A Leopard Can’t Change Its Spots’
A leopard can’t change its spots means that a person cannot change their inner character or nature, especially if it is bad. 1Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. ,2McCarthy, Michael. Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms. Cambridge University Press, 2002
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Examples Of Use
“He keeps saying he is sorry and will never do it again but he keeps seeing other women. I guess a leopard can’t change its spots.”
“I don’t believe he has really gone legit. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
“There is no point trying to get him to stop. He’s going to keep drinking no matter what. You can’t change a leopard’s spots.”
Origin
This idiom and its variants arose from an ancient Greek proverb which appears in the Bible in Jeremiah 13:23:
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots.”
In English, it was first used in print in 1546. 3Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
More Idioms Starting with L
- Loudmouth, be a
- Let Bygones Be Bygones
- Last One In is a Rotten Egg
- Leave Holding the Bag
- Life of the Party
More Animal Idioms
More Bible Related Idioms
- Writing On the Wall
- Turn the Other Cheek
- To (until, till) The Bitter End
- Take As Gospel
- Skin and Bones (nothing but)
- See Eye to Eye
More Can’t Idioms
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More Greek Related Idioms
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Sources
| 1, 3. | ↲ | Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. |
| 2. | ↲ | McCarthy, Michael. Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms. Cambridge University Press, 2002 |