I have heard the phrase "feeding the dragon" used to describe pouring time, resources, and energy into a situation that is self-perpetuating, caught in a positive feedback loop with negative consequences, or is growing out of control because of actions being taken. I think "giving a mouse a cookie" has similar meaning but with much less harsh connotations. Searches for the phrase online reveals many hits on Chinese economics and references to another phrase, "chasing the dragon" none of which shed some light on the meaning of "feeding the dragon". I have not been able to find much else. What is the etymology of this phrase?
Learn English – Etymology of “Feeding the dragon”
etymologymeaningphrasesword-usage
Related Solutions
Afraid can have three different meanings; fear, regret or dislike. The two latter forms doesn't really involve real fear, but rather just unease, and it's the second form that you show examples of.
It comes from old english affray, "frighten", and the adjective form of being frightened survived the verb. The first record of it being used in the meaning of regret is from the 1590s.
There's this from William Safire in The New York Times, writing about the phrase's origin:
'Ch'i 'hu nan hsia pei' goes the Chinese proverb, translated in 1875 as 'He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.' The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs interprets the old Asian metaphor as 'Once a dangerous or troublesome venture is begun, the safest course is to carry it through to the end.'
The earliest use of the phrase in print that I can find is from 1829 in a Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava, in the Year 1827:
This lends credence to the Chinese-origin theory.
Best Answer
I would interpret the phrase as a derivation of to feed the beast. The earliest Google Books results for this phrase refer to the literal feeding of animals, but by 1900 we have uses such as
in reference to keeping a potentially beastly person happy, or of subduing the beast within, representing the savage instincts of humanity that ration and civilization keep in check. That phrase may have originated in translations of Plato's Republic:
To feed the beast, then, is to surrender to something wild and uncontrollable. Perhaps you feed it just enough to stay quiet, hoping to tame it— but perhaps you indulge it, to make it stronger and more vicious (not unlike adding fuel to the fire).
You see results relating to China because the dragon is a synecdoche for China, which is being viewed as a metaphorical beast in some way (after all, feeding the panda or feeding the crane is not nearly as threatening). Similarly, you see uses like feed the bear for indulging Russia. To starve the beast is to end one's obeisance to the beast, enduring the consequences, in hopes of being freed of it; for fiscal conservatives, for example, to starve the beast is to deprive the government of revenue under the theory that it would force the government to reduce spending.
Chasing the dragon similarly uses a dragon to represent China, but is an unrelated phrase. It may refer to competing with China, or it may mean an impossible pursuit, or something else; it is hard to say without context.