échauder

Literally, to scald with hot water or steam (a cooking term, as with poultry before plucking) — but overwhelmingly known today through the proverb chat échaudé craint l'eau froide and the related idiom être échaudé, meaning to have been burned by a past experience and made wary because of it.

• On échaude la volaille avant de la plumer. — You scald the poultry before plucking it.
• Après cet échec, il est resté échaudé pendant des années. — After that failure, he stayed wary/gun-shy for years.
• Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide, dit le proverbe. — Once bitten, twice shy, as the proverb goes.

Most learners will only meet this verb through the fixed expression être échaudé (to have learned a hard lesson) — the literal cooking sense is real but far less common in conversation.

• expression Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide — A French proverb attested from the 12th–13th century (an early form appears in the Roman de Renard), equivalent to the English "once bitten, twice shy."