a poacher turned gamekeeper



a poacher turned gamekeeper

  (British)
someone whose job seems to involve working against the person who is now doing the job which they did before
Usage notes: A poacher illegally kills and steals animals on someone else's land, and a gamekeeper's job is to stop this from happening.
He used to be the the union rep but now he's in management - a case of poacher turned gamekeeper.
See also: gamekeeper, poacher, turn

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Vale-English
Katarinakah-tah-REE-nah (German, Swedish)German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Hungarian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene
Kallisto-Greek Mythology, Ancient Greek
Jasvinder-Indian (Sikh)
MabelMAY-bəlEnglish
Bakir-Bosnian