it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings

English dictionary entry

Meanings

proverb

There are more developments yet to come; one should not presume to know the outcome of an event which is still in progress.

Word forms

it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings it ain't over till the fat lady sings it ain't over until the fat lady sings it isn't over 'til the fat lady sings it isn't over till the fat lady sings it isn't over until the fat lady sings it's not over 'til the fat lady sings it's not over till the fat lady sings it's not over until the fat lady sings

Etymology

First appeared in 1976 in a Dallas Morning News article dated March 10, 1976. Popularized by sports coach Dick Motta in 1978. Generally understood to be in reference to opera sopranos, who were typically heavyset.

Synonyms

it ain't over till it's over

Related words

don't count your chickens before they're hatched

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

Back to search All on I Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary