# What does ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ mean?

To “the pot calling the kettle black” means to accusing someone of a fault you have yourself. Brewer's records this as an old English proverb, and a version appears in Cervantes' Don Quixote.

## What it means

- Brewer's records this as an old English proverb, and a version appears in Cervantes' Don Quixote.

## Action steps

1. Common accusation of hypocrisy.
2. Example: Him calling me lazy is the pot calling the kettle black.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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