self-important or boastful, cockalorum, roost, come home to roost

In the long term, it is hard to believe that increasing our debt will prove helpful, but many political leaders think shorter term, since they won’t be in their roles by the time the chickens come home to roost.

BBC World Service

An ancient tribal society in China has over the centuries lived under a unique matriarchal family structure in which fathers have no formal role to play: http://bbc.in/1ZIb8P0

The Chinese women who rule the roost, World Update - BBC World Service

Meet an ancient tribe in the Himalayan foothills where grandmothers hold…

BBC.IN

The clips that were aired of Mr Wright’s speeches were damning. Speaking of white racism, and after accusing the government of selling drugs to blacks in order to jail them, the pastor once said that blacks should sing not “God Bless America”, but “God damn America”. He said of the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks that “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

1203: Gerry Holt BBC News

One protester with a megaphone is speaking to the crowd, although it is hard to hear what he has to say as he is drowned out by booing. An impromptu sing-song of Land of Hope and Glory receives a cheer, as does the raising of a banner saying: "Margaret Thatcher. She put the Great back into Great Britain." The pro-Thatcher contingent appears to be ruling the roost here.


cockalorum (KOK-uh-lor-uhm, -LOAR-)

noun:
1. A self-important or boastful person.
2. Bragging.

Etymology
From Middle English cock (rooster), of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1715.

Usage
"Sam also has to deal with a cockalorum fellow actor who shares just enough to demoralize him." — Rohan Preston; 'Fully Committed' is Fully Glorious; Star-Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota); Jul 25, 2003.

"Once a comic space cowboy full of cockalorum, Spider One has refashioned himself into an advocate for our nation's impressionable youth." — Friendly Fire; The Boston Globe; May 28, 2003.


 roost

noun

• a place where birds regularly settle or congregate to rest at night, or where bats congregate to rest in the day: birds were hurrying to their evening roosts

verb

[no object]

• (of a bird or bat) settle or congregate for rest or sleep:migrating martins and swallows were settling to roost

Phrases

come home to roost

(of an action in the past) have an unexpected adverse consequence for the person responsible:for the overextended borrowers, the chickens have come home to roost

[from the proverb ‘curses, like chickens, come home to roost’]