| Idiom | Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch |
|---|---|
| Example | I spent the money I planned to earn and then the job was canceled. I shouldn't have counted my chickens before they hatched. |
| Meaning | don't count on profits before you earn them or have them in hand |
| Origin | Aesop once wrote about a woman carrying a basket of eggs. In her mind she figured how much she would get for the chickens when the eggs hatched and exactly how she would spend the money. She got so excited, she dropped her egg basket. Every egg smashed. Today we use this fable to warn people not to be confident of getting a result, realizing an ambition, or making a profit before it actually happens. |
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