don't count your chickens before they're hatched

English dictionary entry

Meanings

proverb

One should not depend upon a favorable (and typically overoptimistic) outcome to one's plans until it is certain to occur.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-don't count your chickens before they're hatched.wav

Word forms

don't count your chickens before they're hatched don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched don't count your chickens before they hatch don't count your chickens before they've hatched don't count your chicks before they hatch don't count your chicks before they're hatched don't count your chickens don't count your chicks

Etymology

First attested in English in Thomas Howell's 1570 New Sonnets and Pretty Pamphlets in the couplet "Counte not thy Chickens that vnhatched be, / Waye wordes as winde, till thou finde certaintee", possibly deriving from similar medieval and early modern Latin fables and maxims.

Synonyms

don't get your hopes up don't sell the skin till you have caught the bear

Related words

halloo before one is out of the wood it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings out of the woods

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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