repeat

as a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly

Foolish people are apt to repeat their missteps. A: "I can't believe Sarah is going skiing again, after she broke her leg the last time." B: "Well, as a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."
See also: dog, folly, fool, repeat, return

history repeats itself

Said when something that has happened in the past recurs in the present. Can be used in the negative to mean the opposite. And, once again, I got dumped. History repeats itself. The home team has lost their last three game sevens, so I bet they're hoping that history doesn't repeat itself tonight.
See also: history, itself, repeat

lather, rinse, (and) repeat

An instruction to repeat the same steps of some process, perhaps multiple times, in order to achieve the same desired result. A reference to instructions found on some bottles of shampoo. It's easy, you just cut a piece of the material to length, fold it in half, then sew along the edges. Lather, rinse, and repeat until you've done 50 of them. My last job was so mindless. I would just input customer details into a spreadsheet, export the file to our internal format, then add it to the company database. Lather, rinse, repeat, all day long.
See also: repeat

repeat (oneself)

To repeat what one has previously done or stated. Be sure to take detailed notes, because I will not repeat myself. People surprised at the sudden shift in public opinion would do well to remember that history tends to repeat itself.
See also: repeat

repeat after me

Once I say something, please repeat it. A noun or pronoun can be used between "repeat" and "after," specifying what is to be repeated. A: "Repeat after me: I solemnly swear." B: "I solemnly swear." Please repeat the vows after me.
See also: after, repeat
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

History repeats itself.

Prov. The same kinds of events seem to happen over and over. It seems that history is about to repeat itself for that poor country; it is about to be invaded again. Alan: The country is headed for an economic depression. Jane: How do you know? Alan: History repeats itself. The conditions now are just like the conditions before the last major depression.
See also: history, itself, repeat
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

repeat oneself

Express oneself in the same way or with the same words, as in Grandma forgets she has told us this story before and repeats herself over and over, or This architect tends to repeat himself-all his houses look alike. A well-known version of this idiom is the proverb History repeats itself, first recorded (in English) in 1561. For example, Her mother also married when she was 18-history repeats itself. [Mid-1800s]
See also: repeat
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • as a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly
  • folly
  • vomit
  • going to (do something)
  • glad-hander
  • hander
  • handers
  • ear hustler
  • flesh-presser
  • dumb ox
References in periodicals archive
Exon 1 encodes a protein associated with transcriptional activity and also has CAG trinucleotide polymorphic repeats.4 Long (CAG)n repeats in the AR compromise several androgen - dependent functions, especially erectile function.
Longer trinucleotide repeats of androgen Receptor Gene: Infertility in males
To date, neither the courts nor the commission have articulated a uniform test regarding what constitutes a repeat violation.
The Appellate Court Declared OSHA Has No Limit on the Look-Back Period for Repeat Citations--and That's a Big Deal
Of this total group, 72 patients went on to require two or more repeat laparotomies and a total of 182 repeat laparotomies were performed on this patient cohort.
The absolute number of repeat operations for complex intra-abdominal sepsis is not a useful predictor of non-survival
Within such conceptualisations, however, the absence of particular attributes may lead to deficit beliefs about the students or the students' background, which may in turn influence decisions to repeat students at preschool or delay their entry into school until they are 'ready'.
Grade repetition risk for boys in early schooling in Queensland, Australia
During the two weeks from December 20 to January 2, 729 of the 1154 programmes on the main four channels will be repeats.
It's beginning to look a lot like last Christmas; DEJA VIEW FESTIVE TELLY REPEATS Cutbacks blamed for huge dose of blasts from past
This Q-Probes study was designed to determine the proportion of repeated critical results, the proportion of repeated results that still met the criteria for a critical result, the proportion of repeated results that were significantly different from the original result, and the median time between the initial and repeated test result for multiple laboratories that repeat at least some critical values.
Utility of Repeat Testing of Critical Values: A Q-Probes Analysis of 86 Clinical Laboratories
Less is known about the women who require repeat abortion services in low-resource settings.
Contraceptive use among women seeking repeat abortion in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The pathway allows accredited optometrists to repeat diagnostic tests in order to confirm the risk of disease, thus improving the accuracy of referrals and deflecting unnecessary referrals.
Auditing a repeat readings service: Optometrist Dharmesh Patel explores the effectiveness of an intraocular pressure glaucoma repeat readings service operating in parts of Cheshire
The ACR said that while there is plenty of unnecessary testing, not all repeat tests fall into that category.
Blognosis: ACR says not all repeat tests are unnecessary
Are we about to see history repeat itself?" Any football punter with any sense of course knows that history won't repeat itself and won't be backing a 4-4 scoreline at 250-1.
PICK OF THE DAY; Goalfest at the Madejski? Seen it all before
MIAMI BEACH--Compliance with postpartum visits and long-acting reversible contraception significantly reduced repeat pregnancies among 210 first-time adolescent mothers, according to a retrospective chart review.
Two plans cut rapid repeat teen pregnancies
How to save time and hassle with your repeat prescriptions.
Are your medicines ready when you need them? HEALTH FEATURE
Network of geomagnetic repeat stations consists of 6 repeat stations of the first class, evenly distributed on the Latvian territory.
Geomagnetic measurements in Latvia
To deal with this unacceptable frequency of false rejections, a common practice is to repeat the QC examination for any failing analytes and again apply the 1:2s rule (2).
Should I repeat my 1:2s QC rejection?
Gen-Probe announced that the FDA has approved its PROGENSA PCA3 (Prostate Cancer gene 3) assay, the first urine-based molecular test to help determine the need for repeat prostate biopsies in men who have had a previous negative biopsy.
FDA approval for prostate cancer assay